Jenny Taylor received the first DAISY Award at a ceremony honoring excellence in nursing at Greene County Medical Center Aug. 21. Thirteen nurses received a total of 17 nominations for the award, which was instituted at the medical center by chief nursing executive Katie Heldt.
Taylor (right) works in the medical center clinics. She was nominated for the award by Kim Bates (left), who witnessed Taylor’s patient-centered work in the waiting area of the physical therapy/West Central Orthopedics. (Scroll to the bottom for the nomination.)
She received a certificate and a sculpture, A Healer’s Touch, hand-carved by artists of the Shona tribe in Africa.
The dining room at the medical center was full for the award ceremony. Becky Wolf opened the ceremony and showed a video produced by the DAISY Foundation explaining the origins of the award. She introduced Heldt, who said “each one of them is a gift to us” about the 13 nominees.
Nominees were Andrea Allbee, Desiree Monaghan and Kim Tasler, acute care; Sarah Borgeson, surgery/public health; Carol Christensen, Jeanne Hoening, Bev Morgan and Tammy Spaulding, long term care; Lori Herrick, emergency; Tina McCollom, surgery; Kristie Hurley and Taylor, medical center clinics; and Heather Wilson, Advanced Women’s Care. Their nominations were all read at the ceremony.
Most of the nominations for the inaugural DAISY Award were by co-workers, although there were some nominations from members of the public. The award will be given twice each year, and patients, their friends and family are encouraged to notice nurses who provide excellent care and to nominate them.
All identifying information was removed from the written nominations before they were passed along to the DAISY Award committee for selection of the recipient. Members of the committee are Tasler, Wolf, Sandy Atkinson, Melanie Frantz, Robin Gunn, Borgeson, and Christie Busch.
Pictured are (front, from left) Lori Herrick, Jenny Taylor and Jeanne Hoening; and (back, from left) Heather Wilson, Kim Tasler, Andrea Allbee, Desiree Monaghan, Tina McCollom, Sarah Borgeson, Carol Christensen, Tammy Spaulding and Kristie Hurley. Bev Morgan was unable to be at the ceremony.
Following is Bates’ nomination of Taylor:
“On Tuesday, June 17, I had the opportunity to be in the physical therapy department sitting next to Dr Wahl’s office.
“Jenny helped an elderly gentleman out of Dr Wahl’s office and showed him to the physical therapy office window. She then left him to get his first appointment with the PT department. They were nice and gave him an appointment and a medical history form to complete and return when he came back for his appointment. He was using a walker and I could tell he was a little confused.
“Out of what seemed nowhere, Jenny comes back add asked him if he would like her to help him answer the history questions. She sat down and went through the entire form as if she had all day. She was so patient as his answers turned into stories that had nothing to do with the questions. Jenny did not act bored, frustrated, or out of time.
“When the history was completed, which must have been 10 minutes, she turned the signed form back to PT and made sure he had his appointment card in hand.
“This is what I call Always Here, Always Caring!”
The DAISY Award is presented at more than 1,700 medical facilities worldwide.
