I should have written this a long time ago, but never got around to sit down and do it. I am nominating Jill Syracuse a nurse on 5 East for the DAISY award. I first became a nurse over 6 years ago now and my first job was on that floor. There are not enough descriptive words I can use to tell you what she did for me, my career and my life in general. I was a fresh new nurse and she guided me where I needed to be guided, let me struggle when I needed to struggle and put me in a position to succeed in a field that is not for everybody. She was a true role model to me and someone whose standards I continue to try to reach and maintain. However, for whatever reasons I never wrote this down over the years. Over a year ago I moved on to another job and one day I came up to visit her. She did not know I was there yet, but I watched as she was teaching similar things that she taught me years ago. Working with another young nurse, developing and showing her a path that will lead to a successful nursing career. That is when it hit me how truly special this woman is, not just to me or the people I worked with at that time but how special she is to 5 East, Mercy Hospital of Buffalo and even Catholic Health. Jill has worked on 5 East for many years and to think of all the people she helped become better nurses in one way or another is amazing. We at Mercy Hospital are lucky to have her and I am so lucky to have worked with her. When I was just coming off orientation I was quiet and very nervous, the workers on the day shift would say, "you better watch out for Jill on nights, she is strict,and she will chew you up and spit you out". That is exactly what happened Jill chewed me up and spit out a better nurse that I EVER would have become on my own!