Bothwell Launches DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses

Bothwell Regional Health Center is pleased to announce a new awards program that will allow patients and their families to nominate nurses who give outstanding, compassionate and skillful care.

The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses was started in 1999 in Glen Ellen, California, by members of the family of Patrick Barnes, who died at the age of 33 of complications from an autoimmune disease. The care his nurses provided was the inspiration for the DAISY Award. DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System. Since its genesis, the DAISY Award has grown into an international program in more than 2,800 healthcare facilities in all 50 states and in 17 other countries.

What makes The DAISY Award somewhat unique is that patients and their families nominate nurses for the award. “We are excited and proud to be among the thousands of healthcare organizations participating in the DAISY Award program,” said Bothwell Chief Nursing Officer Rose McMullin. “Our nurses do extraordinary work every day, and we think it’s important to recognize these unsung heroes. This award gives us a way to do that.”

Four times a year, a committee will select a winner from the nominations. The award ceremony will be held on the nurse’s floor, facilitated by McMullin, and the nomination will be read for colleagues, friends and family. The first Bothwell DAISY Award will be presented during Nurses Week, which is May 6-12 this year.

McMullin credited Lizzy Ulmer, a BRHC clinical education specialist, and Stacie Robertson, a registered nurse recruiter and educator at BRHC, for taking the lead in launching The DAISY Award at Bothwell. “Stacie and Lizzy were key components to the success of this foundation,” she said.

Bonnie Barnes, president and co-founder of The DAISY Foundation, said the award flowed out of her family’s first-hand experience with the “remarkable skill and care” nurses provide to patients. “The kind of work the nurses at Bothwell are called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award,” Barnes said.

Each honoree will receive a certificate commending her or him for being an “Extraordinary Nurse,” a DAISY Award pin, and a sculpture called “A Healer’s Touch,” hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Africa. In addition, a banner with the winning nurse’s photograph will hang in the unit, and the nurse’s name will appear on the DAISY Foundation website.

Finally, cinnamon rolls will be available on the floor. According to the DAISY Foundation website, when Patrick Barnes was ill and in the hospital, he ate one of his father’s cinnamon rolls. The next day he asked for another — along with enough for all the nurses in the unit. Now the Foundation carries on this tradition by serving cinnamon rolls to all the nurses in the award recipient’s unit.

DAISY awareness posters will be displayed throughout the hospital, with nomination forms placed beside the posters. Nomination forms can be mailed in or placed in the DAISY boxes stationed throughout the hospital. Nomination forms also will be available on the Bothwell website: www.brhc.org/DAISYAward. More information on The DAISY Award is available at the foundation’s website: www.DAISYfoundation.org.