Lambeth and Southwark schoolchildren asked to design nursing uniform to mark 200 years since birth of Florence Nightingale

A hospital trust has launched a nursing uniform competition for schools.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ is asking schoolchildren aged seven to 11 in Lambeth and Southwark to design a uniform for the nurses and midwives of the future.

The best outfit will be announced at a special awards ceremony at St Thomas’ Hospital, where the winning design will be modelled by a nurse or midwife, and displayed in the Florence Nightingale Museum for a week.

The competition has been launched to mark the bicentenary of the birth of pioneering nurse Florence Nightingale.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of her birth and the World Health Organisation has declared it the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife in her honour.

Florence Nightingale set up her first nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in 1860, establishing Guy’s and St Thomas’ as the home of modern nursing.

The top three shortlisted designs will be selected by nurses and midwives at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and the winner and runner-up will be chosen by the trust’s chief nurse, Dame Eileen Sills, and the director of the Florence Nightingale Museum, David Green.

The winner and runner up will receive prizes for themselves and their school.

The deadline for competition entries is Friday, March 27 and the awards ceremony will be held on April 30.

Pictured are members of the Guy’s and St Thomas’ haematology nursing team