Recognizing Compassionate Care
    
Some people spend their lives working at a job that is just a job.

For nurses with a true calling, however, helping patients and their families get through what may well be the most difficult days of their lives isn’t just their work. It’s their passion.

Working at the bedside and in clinics, as they get to know their patients, that passion for nursing can inspire a compassion that goes beyond duty. They become advocates for their patients, championing their care, encouraging them in the tough times, and helping with the small, everyday things that add so much to the quality of life.

Too often, when nurses go above and beyond to deliver exceptional care, their efforts are known only to patients and their families. Through the Daisy Award program at Children’s Hospital of Alabama and more than 1500 other hospitals around the world, patients have the opportunity to bring nurses who have made a difference in their lives into the spotlight.

“The Daisy Award program was established through the Daisy Foundation (Diseases Attacking the Immune System), by the Barnes family in memory of their son Patrick and the nurses who cared for him,” Lori Moler, Vice president of Customer Service at Children’s Hospital said. “Since Children’s Hospital became involved with the program last spring, we have been receiving 20 to 30 nominations a month, and 95 percent have come from patients and their families.”

Moler and Marilyn Prier, Director of Patient Health and Safety, facilitate the program and work with the hospital’s Daisy Award committee, which reads nominations and votes for each month’s winner.

Prier said, “Our interactive patient care system provides computer access in every room. Patients and their families can nominate a nurse online. It gives them an opportunity to express how they feel about a nurse whose care had been especially meaningful to them. If the nurse they nominate wins, we let them know and invite them to the award ceremony.”

For a nomination to win, the comments have to be more than “she was nice.” With so many strong competing nominations, choosing a winner can be difficult.

“There has to be a story,” Moler said. “What did the nurse do, and how did that make a difference? We pass the stories on to the Daisy Committee with names removed so they can vote objectively based on the strongest content to choose the winner.”
In considering criteria for nominations, the committee looks for nurses who can serve as a role model for the nursing profession; demonstrate a caring attitude in all situations; communicate with compassion, using words the patient and family understand; and make a significant difference in the life of a patient.
“We’ve had winners from every shift and several different departments, including both inpatient nurses and nurses from our outpatient clinics,” Prier said. “After the voting, the name of the winner is kept under wraps till the day of the award so it will be a surprise. Only the head of the winner’s departments is told, and we swear them to secrecy while they call a department meeting at a time the winner will be there.”

When the department is assembled, members of the Daisy Committee arrive, bearing the award, a banner and a box of cinnabons—a favorite treat Patrick Barnes enjoyed during his illness, with a “heavenly sweet aroma” as a reminder of how special the work is that nurses do.

“Our Chief Nursing Officer Deb Wesley is always there to read the nominating story,” Prier said. “Sometimes the winners begin to cry as they recognize the story and realize the award is for them and that they were nominated by patients who appreciate what they have done.”

Moler said, “In addition to a Daisy pin and a certificate, the winner receives a hand-carved stone statue called ‘A Healer’s Touch.’ Each one is created by artisans in a village in Zimbabwe. The statues are very special, like the nurses who receive them.

“At Children’s Hospital, we believe in patient and family-centered care, and compassionate nurses play a tremendous role in carrying out that mission.”