Southeast Region

A caregiver who truly cares and gives seeds from the heart.

I am honored to be the DAISY Award Coordinator for our hospital. It is a joy to see the nurses who are surprised by the impact they make on a patient and family during their hospital stay. The DAISY Award is a wonderful way to recognize the extraordinary nurses who provide care, comfort, and compassion for our patients every day.

I am reminded that the smallest acts of kindness and caring have the biggest impact. The DAISY Award was an unexpected honor. I am proud to be a DAISY Award Honoree and blessed to be a nurse.

"Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, and caring without even a prescription." -Val Saintsbury

The DAISY Awards in our hospital have been instrumental in our cohesiveness as a nursing family. It is one of the highest honors one can receive in his or her nursing journey and probably one of the few intangible rewards we can bestow upon our amazing nurses. The best antidote to burnout is reading all these amazing stories of our nurses!

To do what nobody else will do, a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through; is to be a nurse.

I must say as the DAISY Coordinator within my organization this role has validated the reason, “Why God has called me to serve others!” Each month as I read the nomination forms that the patients and families complete, it brings me great joy in knowing how awesome the care is that we provide here at CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital. I just want to thank the DAISY Foundation for giving us this great opportunity to recognize compassionate care at its finest!

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! ...

"DAISY has been a fabulous experience for me and the committee seeking to ensure that all registered nurses and licensed practical nurses have potential to be recognized for the care they provide to Veteran patients every day."

“ 'To the world, you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world.' I have seen many of my colleagues receive the DAISY Award who truly deserve recognition for their dedication to being that special somebody to every life they touch. I think it is wonderful that the DAISY Foundation encourages the recognition of outstanding caregivers on an international level. I am inspired to work among many DAISY Award recipients who make our organization and community a better place."