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It's coming up daisies

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, August 28, 2007

Grady Health System in Atlanta awards one staff nurse every month with the DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) award--an award presented by the DAISY Foundation, a non-profit organization that recognizes the excellent patient care nurses provide every day. Staff at Grady Health--an organization on the journey toward ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® designation--nominate a nurse by telling a specific story about the compassionate and caring side of the nurse. At the end of each month, stories regarding the nominees are brought before the nurse executive council to vote on a winner. The nominee's names are obscured so the nurse executive council members do not know the nurses' names or the unit they work on.

The nurse executive council discloses the winner's name and unit to Rhonda Scott, PhD, RN, CNO, who then sends out an e-mail to the entire Grady Health staff to ask them to come with her to surprise the DAISY winner. "We have this big banner that says 'Congratulate our DAISY Award Winner for Compassionate and Caring Nurses,' pom-poms, and the song 'Simply the Best' by Tina Turner is played," says Scott. Once the winner is notified on his or her unit, Scott reads the letter from the person that nominated him or her, attaches a daisy pen to his or her uniform, and also gives the winner a potted plant of daisies to plant in their yard. Those who surprise the winners each month also receive an award--a box of Cinnabon's. The banner stays outside the winners unit with his or her picture on it until the next month when a new DAISY winner is awarded.

Source: Rhonda Scott, PhD, RN, CNO

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