Liliana Mota, a researcher at CINTESIS@RISE and a professor at the Escola Superior de Saúde Norte da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa (Portuguese Red Cross Northern School of Health), won the Research Prize of the Order of Nurses (Central Region).
“I was very happy with this recognition, which I am very honored and proud of, even though I was unable to attend the ceremony due to my medical condition. I have made a commitment to hand over the award to my successor in 2024,” says the researcher, who has now recovered from the health problem that prevented her from attending.
The award annually recognizes nurses who stand out in research in the region. Liliana Mota confesses that she was not expecting to be chosen. “When they told me I’d been awarded the prize, I couldn’t believe it. I thought these distinctions were only given to people with more history and experience. As I still consider myself very young in research, it was something I had not expected. This shows that if we believe and work with will and dedication, we can make a difference,” she says.
According to Liliana Mota, “the fact that she is a researcher at CINTESIS@RISE was highly valued by the Portuguese Nursing Association and justifies this recognition. The researcher also sees this award as the fruit of the work she has done, namely as the coordinator of ESSNCVP’s research unit and as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Health Research & Innovation (RIIS), a young publication, which already has nine international indexations.
Another key aspect of her award was her ability to “create apostles” because “no one researches alone”. As she says, you need to “create a team of followers to do more and better research, more collaborative and integrative research”, including nurses who are in clinical practice, as was her case from 2004 to 2016, before becoming a full-time professor.
“This is the philosophy of CINTESIS, which I have tried to pass on to others, to get closer to clinical contexts and practices. Nurses should feel that they are an integral part of the research being carried out and not a means to an end. This vision is extremely different, it breaks with what was done before,” she continues.
For Liliana Mota, this award is also “a great incentive” to keep her “on the path and focused”. “Research has an undoubted impact on Nursing, but also on the society we work for, as part of a citizen science. This is something that greatly praises and magnifies us,” she concludes.