I am honored to nominate Kristen Barnes for the DAISY Award. Kristen exemplifies the highest standards of nursing through her commitment to her patients and fellow nurses. Kristen is a natural leader among her peers. She openly shares her clinical expertise and encourages collaboration within the team. Her willingness to support others in her unit and beyond has greatly contributed to a culture of teamwork and respect at Douglas.

Kristen actively seeks opportunities to improve patient outcomes and enhance the work experience and environment of our bedside nurses. She has actively contributed to several quality improvement initiatives, including enhancing patient monitoring during blood transfusions, for which she was part of a group that received an award for a poster submitted to the Magnet & Pathway Conference 2025. She has also led several EPIC optimization implementations to improve team members' documentation experiences, including ensuring all items in the fall bundle were available as options in the flowsheet and enhancing documentation for our care partners to improve ease of use. Her day-to-day identification of gaps and barriers at the bedside and development of real-time, meaningful solutions have led to measurable benefits for both patients and team members. Her passion for ensuring that bedside nurses have the resources they need to perform their jobs efficiently and effectively is evident in her daily work. Kristen is an exemplary nurse whose dedication, compassion, and leadership embody Wellstar's mission, vision, and values. She is a great asset to the team, and we are very fortunate to have her.