INKA Awards

Recognizing Global Leadership in Nursing Knowledge Development

INKA (formerly NANDA® International) honors individuals whose work has advanced nursing knowledge through assessment-driven, diagnosis-centered scholarship, classification development, education, implementation, informatics, and professional mentorship.

INKA Awards recognize sustained contributions to the discipline of nursing, including the development and use of standardized nursing language and the advancement of nursing clinical reasoning across practice, research, education, policy, and health systems internationally.

These awards reflect INKA’s commitment to acknowledging those who strengthen nursing’s professional knowledge infrastructure and its visibility worldwide.

Dr. Kristine Gebbie & Dr. Mary Ann Lavin Founders Award

The Founders Award is presented by the INKA Board of Directors to individuals who have made a lasting, internationally-reaching contribution to education, implementation, development, research, and/or informatics applications of the NANDA Classifications.

In 2023, in recognition of INKA’s 50th anniversary, the Founders Award was renamed the Dr. Kristine Gebbie & Dr. Mary Ann Lavin Founders Award.

Unique Contribution Award

The Unique Contribution Award is presented by the INKA Board of Directors to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the NANDA Classifications and the Association.

INKA Living Legend Award

(formerly the NANDA International Living Legend Award)

INKA recognizes a small group of fellows as Living Legends to honor extraordinary contributions to nursing knowledge development and the NANDA Classification sustained over the course of their careers.

Living Legends are recognized for the lasting international impact of their work on nursing knowledge, classification advancement, and the nursing profession worldwide.

Criteria

A Living Legend nominee must:

• Be a Fellow in good standing and a member of INKA for at least 15 years
• Be sponsored by two (2) INKA Fellows in good standing
• Be nominated by sponsors who may submit only one applicant per year

Nominations should address:

• The extraordinary and sustained contribution of the nominee as an exemplar and changemaker
• How the nominee’s work has a positive, enduring international impact on nursing knowledge development and the use of the NANDA Classification.

Nomination Materials

• Completed nomination form
• Two support letters (one from each sponsor)
• Condensed biosketch or CV (maximum five pages)

Mentor Award

The Mentor Award is the highest honor awarded by INKA and is bestowed by the INKA President.

This award recognizes a nurse leader who has significantly influenced the use of the NANDA Classification within professional nursing practice, education, research, health policy, or informatics, and who has invested in the development of others within the INKA community.

Editor’s Award

This award recognizes outstanding contributions to the advancement of the INKA journal, the International Journal of Nursing Knowledge.

Rosemary Carroll Johnson Award

Presented by the Editor of the International Journal of Nursing Knowledge, this award acknowledges the best paper published during the previous two-year cycle of the journal.