Michele Robison, RN, was honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses at Sarah Bush Lincoln on February 8.
Robison was nominated after making a big impression on a visitor for going the extra mile to care for a critically ill gentleman and for providing exceptional care to the visitor’s husband. Her nominator wrote:
“Michele begged her patient to stay for a test on his heart when he just wanted to leave. She repeatedly told him she knew something was wrong and wasn’t sure why tests were coming back clear. Michele kept him and his family informed and even spent time with him. She called the doctors from his room. I later learned he was flown out for care and lived. Michele worked hard to gain this man’s trust because he was very sick. His family found her to thank her for her actions. The family stated that he would have died if he had gone home when he wanted to.
Michele had other patients she was taking care of that day. My husband was one of them. I was impressed by her knowledge, dedication, and skill. My husband felt safe in her care after seeing her work so hard with that man who needed her.
Michele had compassion and passed that on in her job. This hospital is great because it employs nurses like her. I have thought and talked about her actions over a month to many people. I think she should be acknowledged in some way. I won’t stop talking to others about Sarah Bush Lincoln. I will not stop observing great care, either.”
Sarah Bush Lincoln has joined more than 2,700 healthcare facilities by becoming a DAISY Award hospital partner. During the award presentation, Robison 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.