The DAISY Award Program

Welcome to our new DAISY Partners

• A handsomely presented certificate, signed by the hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer and Mark Barnes of The DAISY Foundation. It reads In deep appreciation of all you do, who you are, and the incredibly meaningful difference you make in the lives of so many people.
  

• A special DAISY Award pin
  
  
• A hand-carved Shona sculpture entitled "A Healer's Touch"

These serpentine stone sculptures are hand-carved for us by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe. The sculptures are especially meaningful because of the profound respect the Shona people pay their traditional healers. Shona healers are affectionately regarded as treasures by those they care for, and the well-being and safety of the healer is of community-wide importance. This describes exactly how we and our Hospital Partners feel about nurses! Click Here to see a video of Shona artists carving Healer's Touch sculptures for DAISY.

DAISY's purchase of these sculptures has become very important to the people who carve these beautiful pieces. Given the desperate political situation in Zimbabwe, there are no tourists to buy their work. So the money we send to Zimbabwe to pay for the Healers is a tremendous help to the artists and their families. Their letters of gratitude for this support are heartfelt and heartbreaking. "We know now that we will eat and keep our children in school and be able to gain a little strength," reads one of them, sent when they received a payment from us.

What this said to us is that the incredible work being done by nurses here in the U.S. is reaching around the world to help save the lives of these gifted artists. The artists, in turn, are creating these very sensitive depictions of the unique relationship nurses have with their patients.

Also provided to each DAISY Award facility is a big, celebratory banner that is hung in the recipient's unit for a month, generating lots of very positive conversation about the special role nurses play in patient care.

Since every nurse who receives The DAISY Award reminds us that her/his entire team is very deserving of recognition and that it takes a team to provide great patient care, all the nurse and staff in the recipient's unit are treated to Cinnabon® cinnamon rolls at every presentation. The reason? When we brought a Cinnabon for Pat to eat when he was in the hospital, he requested one for the next day and asked that we bring enough for all the nurses in the unit. That's when we discovered that nurses love Cinnabon rolls!

At each Award presentation, we ask all the nurses present that whenever they enjoy a Cinnabon roll or savor that incredible cinnamon aroma at an airport, mall or wherever, they take time to remind themselves what truly special people they are. Their education, training, skill, judgment and compassion are truly making a difference in the lives of so many people.

Enjoying a Cinnabon roll is always a feel-good moment, and we are most fortunate to have Cinnabon's franchise partners and parent company, FOCUS Brands Inc, as our Premier Sponsor. They very generously donate their product to all our presentations and are committed to helping us grow The DAISY Award into every hospital in North America that wants and deserves the program.

Finally, to provide national recognition to all DAISY Nurses, we list their names and tell their stories on this site. Click here to see a roster of 2010's honorees to date. When you click on a highlighted nurse's name, you'll see the story of why this nurse was chosen to receive The DAISY Award. We are very proud that NurseWeek/Nursing Spectrum, and Nurse.com now feature DAISY Nurses, with spotlights of their stories told in each region.

Want to become a
DAISY Award Program Partner?
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