Cheyenne Regional Begins New Program to Honor Nurses

Cheyenne Regional Medical Center has launched The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses, an international program that recognizes the extraordinary skill and compassion that direct care nurses bring to patients and families.

Up to three Cheyenne Regional nurses will be honored each quarter, with the first three to be recognized at an awards ceremony at Cheyenne Regional during National Nurses Week, May 6-12.

“It’s a privilege to be able to recognize great nurses for the level of care and compassion they offer to our patients,” said Constance Schmidt, Cheyenne Regional’s chief nursing officer.

Nomination forms are available in waiting rooms throughout the hospital and at the nurses’ stations on each floor. An online nomination form is also available at http://cheyenneregional.org/the-daisy-award/

“DAISY Award nurses are those who are positive, professional and caring and who provide patients with quality care,” said Schmidt. “They must also be exceptional at communicating with the other healthcare professionals on their team and with patients and their family members.”

The DAISY Foundation was formed in 1999 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes, who died at age 33 from complications of an autoimmune disease. DAISY is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system. The DAISY Award was piloted at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, whose nurses cared for Barnes during the last weeks of his life.

According to the DAISY Foundation website, the goal of the award is “to ensure that nurses know how deserving they are of our society's profound respect for the education, training, brainpower, and skill they put into their work, and especially for the caring with which they deliver their care.”

Since the program’s inception, more than 20,000 nurses have received the award and more than 120,000 nominations have been written, telling stories of the exceptional impact nurses have on the patient experience have been written by patients, families and colleagues.

More than 1,300 healthcare organizations are DAISY Award partners.

You can learn more about the DAISY Foundation and the purpose of the DAISY Award at http://daisyfoundation.org/