Karen Strickland

My first encounter with the DAISY program was when I was asked to be on our first DAISY committee at Piedmont Newnan Hospital. A year later, I was asked to Chair the committee. That was a little over 1 1/2 years ago. That gives me almost 3 years with the DAISY program now and I love it! 
During my nearly 30 years of Nursing (20+ of that in ICU and ER), I have experienced and witnessed countless DAISY situations. I and others were "just doing my job." Now although I am in management, I still provide patient care with outpatient GI procedures. During the first year of our DAISY program, I was nominated by one of my patients. Close to that same time, I was nominated for another Nursing Excellence Award as well. With those 2 experiences, I was in tears. After 25 years, I finally felt appreciated and validated as a nurse! Even though I strive to care for all my patients as if they are my own family, these simple yet profound words of gratitude from one of them brought me to tears and gave me comfort for all the difficult times in the past and strength for all those to come.
Having those experiences, I personally see many reasons why a program such as DAISY is so very important for our Nursing Profession. Being that bad news travels 10 times faster than good news, it has been my goal for our hospital to spot light our monthly DAISY to show the world the GREAT care our nurses give day in and day out! I headed the project for us to obtain a Large Healer's Touch for our 2015 Nurse's week! I want nurses to support each other instead of "eating our young" as I experienced in my young nursing career; therefore, I am delighted that going into our 3rd year of our DAISY program I have seen an increase in co-worker, nurse-to-nurse nominations! All of your information of how nurse recognition leads to nurse satisfaction leads to patient satisfaction is PERFECT! ...