March winner Tina Varvel

We have struggled with writing this note, but feel that a heartfelt thank you is in order. How does a family thank a person who held their loved ones hand as they took their last breath? Tina was my mothers nurse in ICU. We cannot express the gratitude, kindness and dedication that this beautiful nurse showed to our family, mother, grandmother, and for her vocation. With restrictions on visitors in the hospital during this pandemic, there has been a temendous burden placed on nurisng staff; with that said they handled the ICU death of our loved one with great communication, honesty, understanding and class. 

April winner Carly Johnston

 I have a sister that at first said she would watch my dog while I was in the hosptial. She watched him x2 days and told my son and older sister she was going to put him down. She casued me such stress, that I started to cry. My Morgan is my life, he keeps me calm and happy. He is the best frined I could ever have. Carley knew I was upset, she went above and beyond to help me. She contacted Socail Services to help me. She even offered to take hom in herself. That goes to sow you the love of her patients and her true love of pets. She is an amazing young woman, this hopsital is truly nlessed to have her. I honor her compassion. She made me feel better about my little dog. This world needs more Carleys.  I cant say enough. Her kindness and compassion will stay with me always, and I’ll never forget her. Maybe there would be less violence and more love. Carley’s supervisor is a lucky man.

This month’s DAISY Award winner is Ryan Whitesell, an RN in our 3ICU area. He was nominated by the family member of a patient who experienced significant loss yet found solace in the kindness and compassion towards their family, stating in part: “… Ryan was my dad’s nurse on Friday and Saturday. He was very kind and wanted to explain everything to us in detail. He provided updates, and the manner in which he spoke to us was very soothing. He would go in the room and just sit with my mom and talk about whatever she wanted to talk about. He checked on my mom, often asking if she needed anything. He was present- you could tell he was sincere and that he genuinely cared about our family. When it came time to take my dad off the vent, it was Ryan who, once again, calmly walked us through what would happen, and he said, you just tell me when you are ready. Then he sat with my mom again. At one point, he even said, “thank you for sharing your stories about your husband with me. I wish I would have had the chance to know him before all of this happened.” That statement just touched me because- again, he was present and genuine and kind as if my dad was his own family member and his only patient.”

The nationwide DAISY award program recognizes the exceptional clinical skills and compassion shown by nurses. To nominate a nurse, or learn more about this program visit bit.ly/Riverside_Daisy

The DAISY Award is an international program that rewards and celebrates the extraordinary compassionate and skillful care given by nurses every day.

Riverside Healthcare is proud to be DAISY Award Partner, recognizing one of our nurses with this special honor once a month.

About The DAISY Foundation

The DAISY Foundation was established in 1999 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes who died of complications of the auto-immune disease Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) at the age of 33. (DAISY is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system.) During Pat’s eight-week hospitalization, his family was awestruck by the care and compassion his nurses provided not only to Pat but to everyone in his family. So one of the goals they set in creating a Foundation in Pat’s memory was to recognize extraordinary nurses everywhere who make an enormous difference in the lives of so many people by the super-human work they do every day.

The DAISY Award

Each DAISY Award Honoree will be recognized at a ceremony in her/his unit and will receive a beautiful certificate, a DAISY Award pin, and a hand-carved stone sculpture entitled A Healer’s Touch.

Congratulations to our first DAISY Award winner here at Riverside!

The first DAISY Award recipient at Riverside is Amy T. Amy is a nurse on 3 Cardiac Telemetry who was nominated by a patient’s family. The nationwide DAISY award program recognizes the exceptional clinical skills and compassion shown by nurses.

The nomination read, “Amy was my mother’s nurse during a stressful time in our life. My mother was going to have heart surgery and my siblings and I were all nervous, as well as my mother. My father passed away earlier this year during a heart surgery so we were all anxious and scared. Amy went out of her way to come talk to us multiple times the day before, held my mother’s hand, reassured her that the doctors were wonderful and would take amazing care of her.”

“The day of the procedure she was so calm and it eased my mother’s nerves as well as mine. She went through her preparation every step of the way and even came to her recovery room to see her after her shift. That to me is the definition of an amazing nurse, an angel. She truly made my mother’s experience wonderful. Riverside will always have our hearts. Thank you Amy!”