Sharon Arp, a registered nurse in the Labor & Delivery 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. An award presentation reception was recently held.
Arp was nominated by two patients. The nominations mentioned her expertise, patience, humor, availability, compassion and communication as reasons why she was nominated.
“Sherry is one of the ‘go-to’ nurses in the department,” said Dee Nichols, clinical manager. “She is a great nurse and gives excellent care.”
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.
Twenty-seven other nurses were also nominated for the award. They include: Scott Cavanaugh, Jackie Elbert, Lourdes Rios, Sallie Sanders, Stephanie Bergeron, Justin Bailey, Tara Skiffen, Debbie Hall, Kim Ledford, Barbara Jones, Stephanie Hawkins, Shana Leonard, Kellie Ogles, Retha Blalock, Amanda Cargal, Andrea Hill, Sequoyah Mack, Sheena Battles, Allison Cartledge, Brandy Setser, Brandy Southerland, Amanda Davis, Tori Payne, Melissa Eskew, Carrie McDougal, Levi Barnette and Dana Belcher
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.