As part of National Hospital Week, The Bellevue Hospital (TBH) announced the winners of The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses ® and The BEE Award for Extraordinary Team Members on Thursday, May 12 during a special presentation in the hospital’s atrium.
Suzanne Fay, a registered nurse in TBH’s Emergency Department, received this year’s DAISY Award. Bee Awards were given to Darlene George, a clinical analyst in the Health Information Technology and Telecommunications (HITT) Department, and the family of the late Timothy Walters, who worked in Environmental Services at the hospital.
“The Bellevue Hospital understands and acknowledges the strength behind good teamwork. In 2020, we introduced the DAISY Award for nursing excellence and then earlier this year we added the BEE Award for non-nursing team members,” said Timothy A. Buit, TBH’s president and chief executive officer.
DAISY Award recipient Suzanne Fay has been an employee at TBH since August 2000. Fay is the second nurse to be selected for this prestigious award and was one of 25 nurses to receive nominations.
Fay’s nominator, Jennifer Hartman of Bellevue, related a story from earlier this spring about how the nurse interacted with her 14-year-old son, Nolan, and put him at ease during a stressful time in the Emergency department.
“Suzie quickly had a good rapport with him engaging in conversation about why we were there and checking his vitals, but also making small talk about his love for wrestling,” said Jennifer Hartman of Bellevue. “We were both very comfortable knowing that we were in her care.”
“Suzie was very friendly, making small talk and joking around with him to keep his mood light. She constantly checked on his pain level and tried to accommodate him (as well as myself) in any way that could keep him comfortable,” added Hartman. “All in all, Suzie was the best possible nurse to care for my son during the scariest time he has yet experienced.”
The award is part of the DAISY Foundation's mission to recognize the extraordinary, compassionate nursing care nurses provide patients and families every day.
The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, by members of his family. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon autoimmune disease. (DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.) The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families. More information is available at http://DAISYfoundation.org.
Said Bonnie Barnes, FAAN, president and co-founder of The DAISY Foundation, "When Patrick was critically ill, our family experienced first-hand the remarkable skill and care nurses provide patients every day and night. Yet these unsung heroes are seldom recognized for the super-human, extraordinary, compassionate work they do. The kind of work the nurses at The Bellevue Hospital are called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award.”
This is the first time BEE Awards were distributed and eleven employees received nominations. The award was introduced as a way to recognize non-nursing employees who go above and beyond for the hospital.
“The bee is yet another critical element of the patient care process and we are so excited to introduce the BEE Award this year to recognize all of our extraordinary support personnel,” said Sara Brokaw, TBH’s chief operations officer and chief nursing officer. “In nature, the bee and daisy have a mutually beneficial relationship in which the bee helps to sustain the role of the daisy.”
“Moreover, the bee also plays a critical role in the food security of our agriculture system,” Brokaw added. “Similarly, all support personnel alongside nurses not only help to sustain the activities of the nurses, but also to sustain the overall activities of the hospital. So, it seemed not only appropriate but necessary to complement the DAISY Award with the BEE Award!”
George was nominated by Kim Stults, director of TBH’s HITT department for her efforts to step up and lend a hand to TBH’s clinical team during the height of COVID-19.
“At the start of the pandemic, Darlene stepped forward and explained how she thought she could support the clinical staff. No one asked. She saw the need and she came up with a plan,” Stults said.
George, who has been an employee at the hospital since December 2000, was a certified respiratory therapist before taking a role in HITT in 2012. This skill helped as she stepped in to help her fellow employees during the COVID-19 surges. She brushed up on those clinical skills so she could fill in where needed.
“She would touch base and round in the morning to structure her day to balance her clinical analyst role with the clinical tasks that needed done,” Stults added.
George stepped up to be a constant observer, aided in outpatient COVID-19 testing, and stepped in to do any task asked of her without hesitation.
A special BEE Award was presented to the family of Timothy Walters. Walters served TBH for more than 32 years in a variety of capacities in both the Plant Operation and Environmental Services departments. Walters passed away earlier this year and TBH wanted to recognize his caring spirit and the ways he exemplified excellence by naming him a BEE Award recipient.
Nominations for both the DAISY and BEE are reviewed and recipients are chosen by a committee at The Bellevue Hospital. Awards will be given twice a year – in May and December. Each honoree receives a certificate, a pin, a bag of gifts and a beautiful and meaningful sculpture hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe.
If you would like to nominate a nurse at The Bellevue Hospital for The DAISY Award, visit www.daisynomination.org/tbh. To nominate an employee for the BEE award, visit https://www.bellevuehospital.com/bee-award-nomination.