Women & Children’s Center Nurse Alexis Tucker, RN, was honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses at Sarah Bush Lincoln on March 12.
Tucker was nominated after making a big impression on a mother who had just given birth. The mother, who is also a DAISY nurse, was extremely grateful for Tucker’s quick reaction after her baby experienced a scary complication after birth. In her nomination letter, she wrote:
“On February 3, I met my Women & Children’s labor nurse. I was dilated to at least 7 cm and was getting ready to have a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) – nine years later. I never got past 2 cm with my first child, so the labor progression and pushing stage was something I had never experienced. As a nurse myself, it is never easy being on the other side of patient care, but my nurse was by my side every step of the way. She was caring and compassionate, truly living the SBL standards. I had all the confidence in her for this to be a successfully delivery. She was polite and kind; everything I expected out of my labor nurse and so much more.
Labor went well. I had an 8 lb. 14 oz. baby boy – one of the happiest moments of my life. I never thought moments later would be the scariest moment of my life. I was attempting to breastfeed for the first time, which can be a struggle with a newborn, so I thought nothing of it. However, my nurse was still cleaning up in the room from delivery and came and grabbed him from me. She said, ‘Let me check him out.’ After assessing him, she took him to Advance Practice Nurse Jaye Sandercock, APN, who also evaluated him and ordered some tests and then contacted a neonatal intensive care unit.
It was snowing that day, so they had to take the ground route up north. My baby ended up having a pneumothorax (collapsed lung). My labor nurse heard what I thought was a normal baby sound, grunting, that alerted her. Without her quick thinking and expert judgment, the outcome could have been much different. We are ever thankful for our labor nurse and the rest of the SBL staff for taking excellent care of our precious baby boy.”
Sarah Bush Lincoln has joined more than 2,700 healthcare facilities by becoming a DAISY Award hospital partner. During the award presentation, Tucker 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.