Shelly Lewis, a Registered Nurse from CGH Home Nursing, was recently recognized as a recipient of the prestigious DAISY Award for extraordinary nurses. An International program, the award is presented to nurses around the world, who go above and beyond for their patients and demonstrate extraordinary compassionate care. The DAISY Award–an acronym for “Diseases Attacking the Immune System”–was established by the DAISY Foundation in California in memory of J. Patrick Barnes.
He died at age 33 of an autoimmune disease; during his hospitalization, they deeply appreciated the care and compassion shown to Patrick and his entire family. When he died, they felt compelled to say “thank you” to nurses in a very public way. The DAISY Award continues to recognize and celebrate outstanding professionalism and compassion that nurses bring to patients and their families every day.
“I found Shelly to be compassionate and well qualified,” said the nominator. “She was a good listener, competent, and knowledgeable when answering my questions. But she’s more than that. She worked with me to come up with alternatives for my wound healing. She listened to me and combined what I thought would help with varieties of supplies. She was open to my suggestions on what I thought would work.
“It took a month of trial and error, mix and match, and thinking outside the box, but today the changes are apparent,” continued the nominator. “Upon discharge from the hospital,
I was afraid, insecure, confused, worried, and on the edge of an anxiety attack. But today, I feel confident and knowledgeable about many difficulties and how to troubleshoot for solutions.”
The nominator concluded, “I want to thank you for being calm when I was worried, helping me chuckle not [feel] fear, teaching me skills, and believing in my abilities as well. When next we meet, I want to show you some of the innovative things I’ve worked on since the last time we met. Perhaps some of my ideas will help someone else as well–help them be calmer, have more confidence, adapt better, adjust to their new circumstances, and, like you helped me to do, overcome their fears, to become successful in their endeavors and rise to the challenges of having wounds and colostomy problems. Thank you again, Shelly. Sincerely and with much gratitude.”
Other CGH Nurses nominated by our patients this quarter for the DAISY award included: Miranda Benavidez, Darcie Bettner, Alyssa Canales, Diane Gaumer, Danielle Grobe, Laura Hawk, Brittany Johnson, Jessica Kearse, Gayle Maupin, Amanda Michael, Perri Plog, Sara Ramage, and Cynthia Weisel.
If you would like to submit a nomination for extraordinary nursing care that you or a family member have received at CGH Medical Center, please visit www.cghmc.com/daisy.