A nursing scholarship has been established in honour of dedicated Victorian maternal and child health nurse Carol Friday.

Ms Friday, 68, who worked at the Royal Women’s Hospital and the City of Casey, and her son, Greig, 29, were among 150 passengers killed aboard Germanwings flight 4U9525 when it crashed in the French Alps on March 24.

From next year, an annual scholarship will recognise excellence in nursing in memory of Ms Friday, a registered nurse and midwife, who was renowned for her deep commitment to supporting the community’s most vulnerable people and was also passionate about improving conditions and practices for the state’s maternal and child health nurses.

The Carol Friday Scholarship for MCH Nursing Excellence will enable a high-performing Victorian nurse to undertake postgraduate education that enables them to practice as a maternal and child health nurse.

In announcing the scholarship at the recent 2015 Victorian Maternal and Child Health Conference, Minister for Families and Children Jenny Mikakos said Ms Friday’s devotion to improving maternal and child health services will never be forgotten.

“This scholarship in her name will support other nurses to improve people’s lives – just as she did,” she said.

Ms Friday’s family attended the conference to hear the announcement.

Ms Friday was an Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Vic Branch) member who trained at the Austin Hospital before going on to complete her midwifery training at the Queen Victoria Hospital in 1969.

Ms Friday also worked at Greenvale in Queensland and at an Aboriginal community near Alice Springs while she also spent time caring for the Kosovar asylum seekers who fled Albania.

Applications for the 2016 Carol Friday Scholarship for MCH Nursing Excellence will open in September.