We should start this nomination by saying that all the NICU nurses we encountered during our daughter's relatively short stay, without exception, deserve thanks and recognition. Their knowledge, confidence, and bedside manners when caring for children and by extension, their parents is so comforting - a parent's heart is literally in that bassinet with their child and the NICU nurses make it possible to say goodbye at the end of the night knowing their child will be well cared for.
We are specifically nominating Whitney Benson for the DAISY Award for going above and beyond - in addition to the great care, she provided our daughter and her general thoughtfulness. She was so great with our 3-year-old son that he continues to ask about her days after our daughter has been discharged.
Shortly after our twins' birthday on May 19th, we were juggling a child in NICU, a toddler at home and a mom (recovering from a C-section)/ twin sister on the PP floor. We were especially concerned about our son's transition becoming a big brother and how he would react to meeting his sisters in two different rooms, particularly our NICU baby hooked up to wires and in a room away from Mom.
Whitney was fantastic welcoming our son to meet his sister. She was warm, open, and encouraging to him - she explained things and answered his many, many questions. She let him pick a toy from the sibling toy chest and also put together a great Big Brother packet for him with a hat, baby bottle, pacifier, and a couple other little things. He loved it and couldn't wait to show off his new stuff and use it with his own baby dolls.
Our girls were, of course, the center of attention in many photos during their first few days of life and we loved the cute pink bow hat our NICU baby had. Without even being asked, Whitney made one for our non-NICU baby (and later made us a few more because they kept getting lost in the shuffle). Just a small gesture, but when we look back on those photos in 20 years, with both girls in cute bow hats, we're pretty certain someone in the family will mention Whitney!
Kudos to Whitney! The DAISY Award is meant to "recognize extraordinary nurses everywhere who make an enormous difference in the lives of so many people by the super-human work they do every day"…..in our opinion, it really is the "little things" like these that make such a huge difference. Whitney undoubtedly had many other things to do that day, but she took the extra time to make our son feel special and his parents grateful for the memorable sibling encounter in the NICU. Thank you, Whitney!