Maria Lopez, a registered nurse in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) 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.
Lopez was nominated by family members of patients who mentioned her compassion, trustworthiness, kindness, patience, responsiveness, communication, empathy and caring nature as reasons for her nomination.
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 daily.
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.
Thirty other nurses were also nominated for the award. They include: Justin Bailey, Mary Ann Edgerton, Julia Harding, Sharon Arp, Lacy Wilkins, Teresa Riddle, Deann Wilson, Nikki Taylor, Mary Young, Zach Henson, Fatima Wells, Carrie McDougal, Sarah Green, Alison Caraway, Bryan Hernandez, Lorrie Crawford, Kim Ledford, Molly Becker, Sabrina Jones, Sequoyah Mack, Kristi Leonard, Amy Townsend, Valerie Toon, Amy Neighbors, Kierston Keefer, Brandi Hooper, Meagan Hefner, Rachael Johnson, Samantha Childress and Lori Fowler.
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.