Madison Williamson, a nurse in Hamilton Medical Center’s Turner Maternal and Infant Care Unit, 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.
Williamson was nominated by a staff member for going above and beyond in helping a patient feel more comfortable in a difficult situation. The nomination praised Williamson for thinking outside the box in dealing with small details that made a huge difference for the family.
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-four other nurses were also nominated for the award. They include: Jessica Hix, Cheryl Mitchell, Jose Brillo, Julius Salomon, Cody McKinney, Erica Green, Rob Pierce, Jennifer Waldrop, Cynthia Bartley, Shelby Mdeiway, Donna Ivy, Elvira Hernandez-Moya, Zach Henson, William Brooker, Matt Henson, Scott Cavanaugh, Avery Bryant, Blake Dean, Wanda Cooper, Kaitlyn Oglesby, Hannah Bowen, Chenoa Thomason, Karina Smith and Angela Lacle.
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.
