As part of National Hospital Week, The Bellevue Hospital (TBH) announced the recipients of The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses ® and The BEE Award for Extraordinary Team Members on Wednesday, May 10 during a special presentation in the hospital’s atrium. Videos of the presentation can be seen below.
Christopher Harvey, a licensed practical nurse in TBH’s medical/surgical unit, received the DAISY Award. Melissa Richards, a secretary in the emergency department, was named the BEE Award recipient and a memoriam BEE Award was given to the family of the late Alexander G. Schmidt, who was a help desk specialist in the health information technology and telecommunications (HITT) department.
“The Bellevue Hospital understands and acknowledges the strength behind good teamwork. In 2020, we introduced the DAISY Award for nursing excellence and then in 2022 we added the BEE Award for non-nursing team members,” said Sara Brokaw, chief operations officer and chief nursing officer.
Nominations for both the DAISY and BEE are reviewed and recipients are chosen by a committee at The Bellevue Hospital. Awards are given twice a year – in May and November. 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.
DAISY Award recipient Christopher Harvey has been an employee at TBH since January 2023. Harvey was one of 19 nurses to receive nominations.
Harvey’s nominator, Kimberly Dukeshire, who is director of the medical/surgical and intensive care units, related a story from earlier this year about how the nurse showed great compassion for a family of a dying patient.
“Chris took the time on a busy night to make sure that they were kindly taken care of after the patient had died,” Dukeshire said in the nomination. “He stood in the hall, not saying a word with his arm around the sister for a long period of time while they mourned the loss of their loved one.
I spoke to the family member and she stated she has never met a more compassionate nurse, and she was so thankful that he was there for her and her dying family member. She said that the love, kindness, and true empathy is rare, and she is so blessed to have had this opportunity to be in our hospital with the caring words, actions, and time spent.”
“Thank you Chris, for showing compassion and kindness toward our patients,” Dukeshire added.
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.”
Fifteen employees received BEE Award nominations. The award was introduced as a way to recognize non-nursing employees who go above and beyond for the hospital.
“The BEE award was established in 2022 to recognize extraordinary team members in non-nursing roles that go above and beyond to make an impact outside of their day-to-day duties,” said Lisa Sartain, TBH’s vice president of human resources. “The support of these individuals is foundational to the exceptional care our nurses and providers give to our patients each and every day; they simply could not do this without the help of these team mates. So, just as the Daisy cannot survive without the BEE, nurses cannot survive without their team mates.”
Richards was nominated by her co-worker Ashlynn Bales, a registered nurse in TBH’s emergency department (ER), for her efforts to step up and lend a hand during critical times in the ER. Richards has been an employee at TBH since November 2006.
“Though Melissa does not play a part in direct patient care, I know for a fact she has greatly improved the quality of care hundreds of patients have received,” Bales said in her nomination. Bales related a night when the ER had two critical patients being transferred out and an active cardiac arrest.
“During that full arrest... all of us night shift nurses were in that patient’s room giving it our all. Melissa's shift had ended hours prior, but she did not leave us stranded. By the time we had all trickled out of the room, she had initiated all of the transfers.
“If she hadn’t done that, that patient’s condition could have faded drastically in the time it would have taken us to do so, and this was beyond her scheduled hours! This is just a tiny, tiny example of the miraculous work she does for our staff and patients.”
“There are many days I clock out knowing I couldn't have survived that shift without her,” Bales added.
A special memoriam BEE Award also was presented to the family of Alexander Schmidt. Schmidt served TBH for seven years as a help desk specialist in the Health Information Technology /Telecommunication department. Schmidt 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.
Anyone who has recently been a patient at The Bellevue Hospital and would like to nominate a nurse for The DAISY Award, visit www.daisynomination.org/tbh. To nominate a support employee for the BEE award, visit https://www.bellevuehospital.com/bee-award-nomination.