Lincolnland Home Care nurse Sharon Reinhart, LPN, was honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses at Sarah Bush Lincoln on December 6.
Reinhart displayed innovated thinking by thinking “outside the box” to help a family clean up the home environment of a patient requiring cardiac and respiratory care.
Reinhart worked with Lincolnland Home Care social worker Diane Snow to have a family’s home exterminated due to bed bugs. Snow then arranged for the family to receive new mattresses from Slumberland, which gracefully donated them and Reinhart spent numerous hours trying to find a dumpster to discard the old mattresses. Realizing the family couldn’t afford the minimum $300 charge for a dumpster, Reinhart found a one-time arrangement to have the mattresses discarded free of charge. “The family was very grateful that it was all arranged and for the new mattresses,” Reinhart said.
“Both SBL staff members have treated this family like their own family. They have showed genuine kindness, compassion, and respect. They have partnered with the family, and encouraged them to do the best thing for their entire family’s health,” Lincolnland Home Care manager, Kelley Hennigh, said.
Sarah Bush Lincoln recently joined more than 1,900 healthcare facilities by becoming a DAISY Award hospital partner. During the award presentation, Reinhart received a certificate, a DAISY Award pin and a unique, hand-carved serpentine stone sculpture from Zimbabwe, entitled, “A Healer’s Touch.”
The DAISY Award was established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, who died at 33 of 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.) The care Patrick 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 families.
Patients, visitors, nurses, physicians and other employees may nominate a deserving nurse for The Daisy Award and a nurse will be selected by SBL’s DAISY committee every month to received this special honor. Nomination forms are located at www.sarahbush.org and at all SBL clinics and on patient floors. The forms can be submitted to any Sarah Bush Lincoln staff member, or sent via email to daisy@sblhs.org or mail to Sarah Bush Lincoln, DAISY Nursing Award, 1000 Health Center Drive, Mattoon, IL 61938. For more information, contact SBL DAISY coordinator, Cynthia Edwards, RN, at (217) 238 -3422 or cedwards@sblhs.org.