Arcola Clinic nurse Heather Johnson, LPN, was honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses at Sarah Bush Lincoln on November 17.
Johnson made a big impression on a patient’s son after she went out of her way to make sure his father received his laboratory test results as quickly as possible.
The patient’s son wrote: “My father was released from the hospital on Wednesday and was told to followup with his healthcare provider on Friday to have his potassium and magnesium levels rechecked since he was having trouble maintaining these. A problem occurred because the lab courier had just been there and no more pick-ups would occur on late Friday afternoon. Heather knew these laboratory results were important to the care of my father so she made the decision to drive from Arcola to Mattoon herself to deliver the blood sample to the laboratory. Our nurse knew if my father’s levels were too low, he might have to be readmitted to the hospital and she didn’t think it was a good idea to wait until Monday for the laboratory results.”
Sarah Bush Lincoln recently joined more than 1,900 healthcare facilities by becoming a DAISY Award hospital partner. During the award presentation, Johnson 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.