February 8th, 2024 – 5:25 PM
Atrium Health Floyd –
(Pictured from left: Registered nurses Kim Chandler, Tamela Cagle, Larketti Winston, Witney Chandler, Caroline Banks, and Avery Floyd)
The mother of a baby boy who was cared for at Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit wanted to recognize someone for the outstanding compassion they showed him.
She ended up nominating six registered nurses who she said went “above and beyond for my family.”
“No mom wants to leave their baby, but there was not a single day I worried about him while he was under their care,” she wrote in the nomination form.
NICU nurses Caroline Banks, Kim Chandler, Whitney Chandler, Larketti Winston, Tamela Cagle, and Avery Floyd were recognized Wednesday as DAISY winners for treating mom and baby like family.
“From making him Christmas ornaments, decorating his room, and buying him outfits out of their own pockets, he truly was blessed with the best nurses,” the mother wrote.
The family of Patrick Barnes established the DAISY Award to honor bedside nurses after he died from an autoimmune disease while being treated in a Seattle hospital.
The NICU team at Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center was also given cinnamon buns, a DAISY tradition because it was one of the few things Barnes could eat while he was hospitalized.
“I think it is very special to win a team award,” said Sheila Bennett, senior vice president and chief of patient services at Atrium Health Floyd.
She said the only other team DAISY Award she could recall at Floyd was one given to ICU teammates in 2017 when they helped organize a baptism for a patient who was dying.
Read about that award here: https://bit.ly/49JBRFp
The DAISY Foundation is an international organization, and its website: www.daisyfoundation.org, features past winners.