Hanna Nicholson, a registered nurse on the Westcott Beckler Morrison medical unit at Hamilton Medical Center (HMC), recently received the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. The DAISY Award recognizes exemplary nursing excellence and is the highest honor a nurse can receive at HMC.
Nicholson was nominated by a patient’s family member who mentioned her respectful and caring nature, compassion and gentleness as reasons for the nomination. The nomination also mentioned that Nicholson learned some words in the patient’s language to help in calming and making the patient comfortable. According to the nominator, “she truly cares about her patients.”
The award, presented in collaboration with The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) is part of the DAISY Foundation’s program to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day.
DAISY Award recipients receive an honorary DAISY pin, a banner to display on their unit, an award certificate, and the Healer’s Touch, a hand-carved sculpture by the Shona tribe in Zimbabwe. The sculpture is especially meaningful because of the profound respect the Shona tribe gives to their traditional “healers.” A Shona healer is affectionately regarded as a treasure by those they are caring for which describes exactly how the DAISY Foundation and Hamilton feel about nurses.
Twelve other nurses were also nominated for the award. They include: Nikki Taylor, Tara Skiffen, Shelby Mdeiway, Scott Cavanaugh, Anissa Sosebee, Stephanie Hawkins, Cassie Chamlee, Nina Smith, Theresa Brown, Amber Tuck, Ashlee Ingle and Beth Strawbridge.
The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, Calif., and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Barnes died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little-known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.
