DAISY Award says 'thank you for excellent compassionate care'

EDITOR'S NOTE: Bonnie Barnes, FAAN, and Mark Barnes, FAAN, speak at healthcare organizations and nursing conferences throughout the year. They have been honored for their work by hospitals and nursing organizations with Friend of Nursing Awards and the prestigious President’s Special Recognition Award at the Magnet Conference in 2010. In May, 2012, they were honored with AACN’s Pioneering Spirit Award, and in October, 2012, they were inducted as Honorary Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing. In 2015, they were inducted as Honorary Members of Sigma Theta Tau International, the Nursing Honor Society, and in April, 2016, they received Honorary Member Awards from the Oncology Nursing Society and the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses.

Twenty years have passed since our Patrick died of complications from idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. For 20 years we have been passionately honoring compassionate care as an expression of our family’s gratitude for the skillful and loving care Patrick’s nurses gave him and us when he was hospitalized for eight weeks in 1999.

We never imagined that today The DAISY Award® for Extraordinary Nurses program would be celebrating nurses in more than 4,000 healthcare facilities and colleges of nursing around the world!

Most important, we have learned that we are not the only patient’s family that is compelled to say “thank you” to nurses. Over a million times, a patient, family member, or co-worker has taken the time to tell their story of the impact a nurse has had on them by nominating their nurse for The DAISY Award.

These stories richly describe the patient experience. Why has DAISY been so successful? The program contributes to a healthy work environment, supports nurse engagement and enhances the patient/family experience. The evidence of DAISY’s impact is described in this edition.

The DAISY (which stands for diseases attacking the immune system) program celebrates the reason most nurses became nurses — to provide compassionate care to patients and families when they are most vulnerable.

Ongoing recognition of extraordinary care brings nurses back to the roots of their careers, no matter how long they have been in practice. The most common response we hear from DAISY honorees is, “Thank you for reminding me why I became a nurse.”

Celebrating compassionate care ensures that compassion is front and center in an organization’s culture. It enables organizations to celebrate all the “right” that goes on every day.

Nurses are trained to analyze all that’s going wrong with patients, systems, equipment, etc. But when they stop and focus on the “right,” magic happens! Nurses’ compassion and satisfaction is elevated, and the joy of their work may be restored.

The creativity of nurses in their implementation of The DAISY Award has wowed us. All the resourcefulness nurses bring to their practice is evident in the joy they bring to making nomination collection boxes and displays, surprising honorees and making their celebrations truly memorable for all who attend.

DAISY committees have the hardest job of this program — choosing honorees from among the many wonderful, heartwarming DAISY Award nominations they receive.

In addition to The DAISY Award for direct-care nurses, we express gratitude to nurses by recognizing nurse leaders, nurse-led teams, nursing faculty and nursing students.

We support nurses doing research and evidence-based practice projects with our J. Patrick Barnes Grants. DAISY-funded studies are presented at prestigious conferences around the world, as nurses disseminate their findings and improve patient care.

We hope as you read this edition, our gratitude to nurses will be tangible to you. The DAISY digital edition was enthusiastically created through our partnership with Nurse.com, and it’s a project both organizations are profoundly proud of.

If you are currently honoring your nurses with The DAISY Award, you may learn new ideas to make your program’s outcomes even stronger. If you are not a DAISY organization yet, we hope you will consider The DAISY Award and its proven success for organizations.

DAISY Foundation releases new book "Shining the Light On All the Right."

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Our message to nurses

No matter how difficult the work is, physically, intellectually and emotionally. No matter how much technology is used to take care of your patients. No matter how many tasks you must accomplish during your day. No matter how much documentation you are required to enter. No matter where you are in your career. No matter how exhausted you may be.

Please never forget the reason we hope you all started on the journey to become nurses — to take care of people who need you to treat them with dignity, humanity and compassion, whatever condition they are in.

Please know that there are times that the best thing you can offer a family member is a heartfelt hug, because we know from experience that there is no hug like a nurse's hug. Never forget that the person in that bed or chair deserves to be treated as you would treat a member of your own family.

And know that while not every patient or family member will tell you this, when you care for them not only with your brain but with your heart, they will never forget you. Your impact on them — the difference you make in their experience — will be tremendous. And they will be as grateful as we are to the nurses who cared for Patrick and our family 20 years ago.

Creative ideas to celebrate honorees

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Many organizations have invented fun and unique ways to recognize their DAISY Award honorees. View these slides to get inspired.