Long time nurse Beth Garrett, RN, was honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses at Sarah Bush Lincoln on September 28.
Garrett, who has served as a floor nurse and a charge nurse, was nominated by her co-workers for her experienced leadership and for providing compassionate care at Sarah Bush Lincoln since 1983. In a nomination letter, her co-workers wrote:
“Beth is an experienced leader and looked up to by her peers who often comment on how caring and compassionate she is to the patients and staff.”
“She is regularly recognized by her patients in daily rounding and follow-up phone calls. She’s the type of leader that always helps, even if you didn’t ask her to. Beth is always going above and beyond what is expected of her and is very well known by the patients and her ‘wonderful back rubs.’ One patient commented, ‘My back was hurting and Beth gave me a back rub which made me feel so much better, something she did not have to do.’”
“Beth is an incredible resource and always has answers to the many questions we ask her. She goes outside her ‘job description’ to assist everyone. She has cleaned patient rooms to assist our support partner staff. She answers call lights and responds to alarms – even when it is not her patient. She always has a smile and positive attitude.”
“Beth is also very active in her community. She is a volunteer with Peace Meal. She received a phone call at home one day from a random person. This person stated that she had fallen and then just hung up. Beth took it upon herself to call everyone from her Peace Meal deliveries that day. She called everyone on her list and there was one person she could not reach. She drove out to this person’s house to check on her and, sure enough, it was that person who had fallen. This is great example of how our 3 East nurse’s compassionate care even when she isn’t at work.”
Sarah Bush Lincoln has joined more than 2,400 healthcare facilities by becoming a DAISY Award hospital partner. During the award presentation, Garrett 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.