HERMISTON, Ore.-Nurses and support staff at Good Shepherd Health Care System (GSHCS) were honored with DAISY and BEE awards on the afternoon of December 17.
“Thanks for taking the time to come and recognize these DAISY and BEE honorees,” said GSHCS President and CEO Art Mathisen. “We’re really proud of these individuals for what they did to receive recognition.”
15 nurses were nominated for DAISY Awards, while seven support staff were nominated for BEE Awards.
“People are doing great things in every part of our hospital, and we want to recognize that,” said Mathisen. “This is about recognizing two different groups and how they come together to meet Good Shepherd’s mission of providing quality care close to home.”
The DAISY Award
Nominated by their patients, DAISY Awards honor exceptional nurses, with recipients receiving a “Healer’s Touch” sculpture representing the bond between nurses and patients.
“I feel blessed to receive this honor,” said Brandon Uribe, a Medical/Surgical Nurse presented with a DAISY Award for his dedication to patients and for providing consistent and compassionate care.
“It’s not all just me, though, it’s because of my wife and our amazing support staff and crew at Med/Surg,” said Uribe. “I love being a nurse, I feel it’s my purpose to serve others and be a light in this world.”
The BEE Award
BEE Awards (Being Exceptional Everyday) recognize extraordinary team members and recipients, also nominated by their patients, receive a “Circle of Friends” sculpture.
Nazario Rivera, a Case Manager at GSHCS, received a BEE Award for going “above and beyond to provide compassionate support to families navigating difficult moments, including coordinating transportation.”
Rivera’s “kindness, empathy and commitment to going the extra mile show how deeply he cares for others,” according to the BEE Award nomination submitted by a patient on his behalf.
“This is a huge honor, I appreciate our support staff,” said Rivera. “It’s easy to go above and beyond with the level of collaboration we have here. I’m proud to be a part of Good Shepherd, it feels like a family.”
The DAISY Program at Good Shepherd
The DAISY (Disease Attacking the Immune System) Foundation, was formed by the family of Patrick Barnes, who died of an auto-immune disease in 1999.
Before his death, Barnes spent eight weeks in the hospital, during which time the compassion and dedication of his nurses impressed his family, ultimately inspiring them to form The Daisy Foundation to recognize exceptional nurses in his honor.
Today, The DAISY award is an international program recognizing nurses for the care they provide, and Good Shepherd is a DAISY Award partner.
Cherie Wilson, the Family Birth Center (FBC) Manager at GSHCS and Sevana Reardon, a FBC Nurse, helped bring the DAISY program to GSHCS about a year and a half ago.
“As we started The DAISY Awards here, one of the things we always heard from nurses is that ‘they couldn’t do their jobs without support staff,’” said Reardon. “So, we decided to bring the BEE Awards program to Good Shepherd to recognize them.”
While the BEE Award program is relatively new at Good Shepherd, only about a month old, Wilson and Reardon are pleased to be able to recognize individuals, such as Rivera, who work behind the scenes helping families navigate difficult times.
“It takes bees to pollinate daisies,” said Wilson. “We just couldn’t do what we do without our support systems.”
Attendees of The DAISY and BEE Awards enjoyed cinnamon rolls after the ceremony, a tasty and symbolic treat that goes back to the dawn of The DAISY Foundation.
As Reardon explained, when Barnes was in the hospital near the end of his life, he couldn’t eat much, but one day his family brought cinnamon rolls when they came to visit.
Barnes asked his father for a bite and ended up eating an entire roll before asking his family if they could bring enough to share with the nurses caring for him the next time they came.
Today cinnamon rolls symbolize the compassion and care that nurses provide for patients and families.
More information about The DAISY and BEE Awards at Good Shepherd, including nomination forms, is available online.
