Nurses at South Georgia Medical Center’s campuses and affiliates will soon be honored with The DAISY Award For Extraordinary Nurses, a program that recognizes the super-human efforts nurses perform every day.  
 
Patients can now thank their nurse by nominating him or her for the DAISY award. Each month, one nurse will be selected by SGMC’s DAISY Award Committee, and recognized in front of the nurse’s colleagues, physicians, patients, and visitors. The honoree will receive a certificate commending her or him for being an "Extraordinary Nurse" and a beautiful sculpture called A Healer’s Touch, hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Africa.
 
SGMC Chief Nursing Officer Dr. Tami Jackson said, “We are proud to be among the healthcare organizations across the world participating in the DAISY Award program. Nurses are heroes every day. It’s important that they know their work is highly valued.”  
 
“There are amazing things happening at SGMC, but because nurses feel they are just doing their job we often don’t hear about them. We are asking our patients to share those experiences with us,” said Jackson. To nominate a nurse, patients, family or staff may go online to sgmc.org/DAISYaward and submit their story.
 
The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, CA, and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes.  Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease.  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.
 
Bonnie Barnes, President and Co-Founder of The DAISY Foundation, shared, "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 work they do.  The kind of work the nurses at SGMC are called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award.”