Megan Steffen, RN, was honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses at Sarah Bush Lincoln Newton Clinic on September 25.
SBL Newton Clinic Provider Michelle Fulton, APRN, nominated Steffen for going above and beyond to take care of a long-time clinic patient. In her nomination letter, she wrote:
“We recently had a 102 year old patient enter hospice care through Lincolnland Hospice. She was a spirited, spunky lady and we enjoyed her so much! She had definite opinions about what she wanted and didn’t want, and what she didn’t want, was to go to a nursing home. She did not have family in the area. She lived at a local assisted living facility and until the last few months, she remained fairly independent.
As her condition worsened, she was in a difficult position again when the assisted living facility’s regulations required medication to be administered by a nurse or family member. Since this was not available 24 hours a day, they urged her to go to the nursing home.
By this time, she was no longer talking or interacting with those around her, but Megan knew this was NOT what she wanted. Megan volunteered to administer her medications so she wouldn’t have to go to the nursing home. Megan gave the caregivers her personal phone number. When she needed medication at night, Megan went to the assisted living facility and gave it to her.
I would like to thank Megan and applaud her commitment to our patient. Megan’s willingness to provide care to our patient when and where she needed it, allowed her to die peacefully in her home.”
Sarah Bush Lincoln has joined more than 2,700 healthcare facilities by becoming a DAISY Award hospital partner. During the award presentation, Steffen 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, Jamie Easton, RN, at (217) 238 -6255 or jeaston@sblhs.org.