Celebrating Nursing Faculty for Their Inspirational Influence on The Nurses of Today and Tomorrow

Why The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Faculty Was Created

If it were not for our nursing faculty, where would the nursing profession be?  The co-founders of The DAISY Foundation, Bonnie and Mark Barnes, started giving this some thought in 2010 as the seeds of meaningful recognition through The DAISY Award® for Extraordinary Nurses program were spreading around the world.  Serving on the DAISY Board at the time was Dr. Elizabeth Heyman, then Dean of the Galen College of Nursing in Cincinnati.  At a Board meeting, she commented that “someone had to teach those nurses who took care of Patrick.”  She was referring to the nurses whose compassionate care for their son, Patrick, so touched the Barnes family that they created a program to honor nurses for their above-and-beyond compassion.  Dr. Heyman’s observation was an epiphany for Bonnie and Mark. Indeed, there must have been gifted faculty members who strongly influenced the care Patrick received. These special teachers deserved recognition, and so The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty was created. The intent was to honor nursing faculty who inspire their students to always remember that nursing is much more than tasks and technology.  These faculty help ensure that the art as well as the science of nursing are brought to every patient experience.

The pressures on nursing faculty are numerous, yet their impact is powerful.  Many students talk about hearing a professor's or instructor's voice in their ears even years after they have graduated.  These dedicated nursing faculty members often do not receive appropriate recognition for the effect they have on their students, on patient care and on the professionalism of nursing.

The Faculty Award was created to recognize and celebrate the contributions faculty make to the future of nursing.   It is our sincere hope that just as The DAISY Award for direct care nurses helps mitigate burnout and compassion fatigue, meaningful recognition of nursing faculty will help sustain faculty's commitment to teaching our next generation of nurses. That is also why we have partnered with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, National League for Nursing, the Organization for Associate Degree Nursing and Sigma to issue several National Calls for Nurse Faculty Recognition to honor academic leaders responsible for preparing the nation's nursing workforce.

What is The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Faculty?

The DAISY Foundation, as part of its service to the nursing profession's role in patient care, established the DAISY Faculty Award to provide colleges/schools of nursing a national recognition program that they may use to demonstrate appreciation to their nursing faculty for their commitment and inspirational influence on their students.

In light of the nursing faculty shortage, The DAISY Foundation hopes that this program will contribute to:

• Faculty retention
• Faculty engagement
• A more positive work environment

The DAISY Foundation hopes that this program will contribute to faculty retention by generating a more positive work environment for nursing faculty members in schools that have The DAISY Faculty Award program and will encourage nursing faculty to continue teaching.

In creating The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty, there were four elements we wanted to ensure our recognition program included:

• A partnership with schools of nursing to provide ongoing recognition
• A program enabling all nursing students to have the opportunity to be recognized, with a selection process that is transparent, unbiased, and fair.
• Guided implementation and ongoing support where DAISY provides most of the materials for the program.
• Flexibility so that The DAISY Award may be tailored to each organization’s unique culture and values.

Presenting the Award:

DAISY presentations are meant to be joyful occasions. We propose that the presentation occurs in a location that allows recipients to be surrounded and celebrated by their peers and students. The recognition ceremony, coordinated by the DAISY Committee, can be a surprise for the recipient and often occurs at graduation, a pinning ceremony, in the classroom, a faculty retreat, or another public event.

The package for the DAISY Award for Nursing Students includes:

• Award certificate (this is a PowerPoint slide that will be emailed)
• DAISY Foundation portfolio for the award certificate
• DAISY Faculty Honoree Pin
• Healer's Touch sculpture

Planning and Implementing The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Faculty Program

The first step is to fill out our “request more information form”.  The DAISY Regional Program Director for your region will email you a letter of introduction that provides details on how to plan and implement the program at your school, forming a committee, and the cost of the program for your institution. They will also be in touch to gauge your interest and set up a phone conference or webinar to answer your questions or provide additional information.

Should you decide to move forward with The DAISY Faculty Award, the next step is to fill out our online Commitment Form. This provides us with main points of contact at your school, the number of awards per year you will present , and your estimated start date, and everything we need to help you get started.  Once we receive this form:

• We will email you the login and password to our online Resource Center which contains an implementation guide, sample criteria, nomination form templates, marketing materials for your program and much more.
• Your Regional Program Director will be in touch to set up a date/time for a welcome webinar with your DAISY Committee who will be coordinating the award program.
• An invoice for the first year of DAISY Gifts will be emailed. Once it’s paid, we will ship your gifts for the year.

 We look forward to partnering with you to honor your extraordinary nursing faculty!