| Intensive Care Unit Nurse Is First DAISY Award Recipient
 Peggy Osborne, R.N. |
Nurses at the Regional Medical Center are being honored with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. The award, presented in collaboration with the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) is part of the DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Foundation's program to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day.
Regional Medical Center’s first award recipient is Peggy Osborne, R.N., a staff nurse in the intensive care unit. A member of the RMC team for 15 years, Osborne has served in the nursing profession for 34 years. She was selected from some 90 nominations submitted since the inception of the program at RMC in April. A native of Branchville, she first served as an LPN for 16 years, before returning to school and becoming an RN.
Osborne was chosen for the DAISY Award based on the nomination of a patient’s family member: “Over the past 17 days of my 88-year-old mother’s hospitalization, I have encountered numerous nurses, aides and technicians. None compare to Peggy Osborne. She is the epitome of what a nurse should and is expected to be. Her clinical expertise was evidenced by her awareness of my mother’s continued weakening condition. She thoroughly reviewed Mom’s chart and discovered that her hemoglobin had been declining. She contacted the doctor who ordered two pints of blood, which drastically improved Mom’s condition. The next day my mother was sitting up and fed herself for the first time in 17 days! She took the time to brush my mother’s hair each day and even went so far as to wash and dry it for her. She is the only nurse who cared enough and understood what this would mean to my mom to go that extra mile to do this. Getting her hair washed and dried meant so much to Mom and made her feel so much better. All of the nurses were above average but the compassion and care Peggy showed my mother for the few days she was in her care was far above the norm and was sincerely appreciated by me and my mother. She is most deserving of the award.”
“I am so honored to be the recipient of this award,” commented Osborne. “It is really our entire unit’s award. We are a team, and I appreciate the opportunity to work with this great group of people in caring for our patients.”
The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, CA, and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Patrick 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. The care Barnes and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.
Selected from nominations submitted by patients, visitors, nurses, physicians and hospital employees, DAISY honorees personify remarkable patient experiences and consistently demonstrate excellence through their clinical expertise and extraordinary compassionate care and are recognized as outstanding role models in our community.
Each quarter, a nurse will be selected by RMC’s nursing administration to receive The DAISY Award. At a presentation given in front of the nurse’s colleagues, physicians, patients, and visitors, the honoree will receive a certificate commending her or him for being an "Extraordinary Nurse." The certificate reads: "In deep appreciation of all you do, who you are, and the incredibly meaningful difference you make in the lives of so many people." The honoree will also be given a beautiful and meaningful sculpture called “A Healer’s Touch,” hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Africa.
One day while Barnes was in the hospital, he asked his family to bring him a Cinnabon cinnamon roll plus enough for all of the nurses in his unit. With the help of Cinnabon’s parent company, FOCUS Brands, The DAISY Foundation carries on this tradition by serving Cinnabons to all of the nurses in the Award recipient’s unit in thanks for everything they do for their patients and families.
Bonnie Barnes, President and Co-Founder of The DAISY Foundation, said, "When Patrick was critically ill, our family experienced first-hand the remarkable skill and care nurses provide acutely ill patients every day and night. Yet these unsung heroes are seldom recognized for the super-human work they do. The kind of work the nurses at RMC are called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award.”
RMC Chief Nursing Officer Julia Yawn commented, “We are proud to be among the hospitals participating in the DAISY Award program. Nurses are heroes every day. It’s important that our nurses know their work is highly valued, and The DAISY Foundation provides another way for us to do that.”
“Peggy is a dedicated nurse who values her co-workers and demonstrates the teamwork approach every day,” Deneene Linder, director of the Intensive Care Unit/Fourth West and Rehabcentre, said.
More information about The DAISY Award is available on their Web site www.DAISYfoundation.org. |