AU College of Nursing recognized instructors and students at the DAISY awards ceremony on May 5. The recognition program (started in 2019 at the college) has celebrated recipients for their extraordinary nursing compassion and skills.
Nominees received DAISY pins, purple daisy pins for instructors and white daisy pins for students. Each winner received a certificate, DAISY award pin and a sculpture entitled “A Healer’s Touch.” The sculpture is hand-carved by a Shona artist in Zimbabwe.
Students were nominated by patients, fellow students and instructors. The recipients of the DAISY award for Extraordinary Nursing Students were, Morgan Lindelow (undergraduate) and Mollie Williams (Graduate). The award was created to recognize and celebrate nursing students for the above-and-beyond care and compassion shown to patient and their families. The nominees for graduate students were Anna-Brooke Harrison-Hall, Elizabeth Moore, Apryl Norris Ashley Westberry and Mollie Williams.
Instructors (faculty and community partners) were nominated by students and by patients. The recipients of the Extraordinary Nursing Instructors were Ashley Boswell (undergraduate instructor) and Della Fuller (graduate instructor). The DAISY Foundation, as part of its service to the nursing profession’s role in patient care, established the award for Extraordinary Nursing Instructor to provide colleges/schools of nursing a national recognition program to demonstrate appreciation to their nursing instructors for their commitment and inspirational influence on their students. Nominees for undergraduate instructors were Ashely Boswell, Danielle Larkin, Caroline Lisenby, Kris Morell, Hannah Slay-Caypless and Clay Young. The nominees for graduate instructors were Joy DeBellis, Robin Farrell, Della Fuller and Skylar Moore.
DAISY Awards were established in the memory of J. Patrick Barnes who died (at the age of 33) from complications of the autoimmune disease idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). Patrick’s family was very touched by the remarkable compassion and clinical skill demonstrated by his nurses. They created DAISY (Disease Attacking the Immune System) to recognize exceptional nurses everywhere. The Foundation is dedicated to saying “thank you” to nurses and is now proud to recognize students for their care of patients and their families.
