Float pool nurse Heather Kirkeng, RN, was honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses at Sarah Bush Lincoln on March 22.
Kirkeng was nominated after making a big impression on one of her patients for her dedication, kindness and compassion.
Her nominator wrote: “I was a patient on 4 West nursing floor recently and Heather was my nurse. I came into the hospital with a rare form of cancer. She had not heard of it and immediately looked up the necessary information. She wanted to learn more about it. She was very kind and compassionate! I also had a drain that wasn’t familiar to those on the nursing unit. Heather wanted to learn more about that, too. She said she always wanted to learn new things for her job. My son had been trained to empty this drain and was willing to show my nurse about it. She stayed late, after her report to learn how to drain my side catheter.
The next night, Heather was not working my wing – but she came over to show the nurse on the night shift how to use the drain. Every time she came into my room, she was so kind and friendly. My family and I felt she went above and beyond to learn more and to be helpful to us.”
Sarah Bush Lincoln has joined more than 2,400 healthcare facilities by becoming a DAISY Award hospital partner. During the award presentation, Kirkeng 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.