Hershey names Reardon, Barrett February, March DAISY Award winners

Hershey Medical Center presented the February and March DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Awards to Dolores Reardon, Medical Intensive Care Unit, and Heather Barrett, Surgical and Anesthesia Intensive Care Unit.

The accolade recognizes nurses for their skillful, compassionate care and their daily support of patients and families.

Reardon was recognized for her special connection with her patients and their families and her empathy and caring attitude. She was nominated by the daughter of a lung cancer patient with severe anxiety.

The daughter wrote, “She stepped outside her comfort zone and shared a personal story with my mom that truly impacted her comfort and acceptance of care. To know perfectly how and when that was needed is a true testament to her. The look of relief on her (mom’s) face when she told me about the interaction brought me to tears, and not ones out of sadness, anger or fear, for the first time in a week.”

The nurse coordinator in the Surgical and Anesthesia Intensive Care Unit nominated Barrett, who helped expedite the discharge of a dementia patient who had fallen in the Memory Care unit at a local nursing home.

Barrett’s nominator wrote that because she (Barrett) knew “the harm of removing a familiar environment from a patient with severe dementia, she advocated for her discharge, including discussing this with the trauma team, the patient’s family member and the care transitions team to arrange transportation. She completed the bedside swallowing evaluation so the patient could eat, moved the patient to a chair once cleared to do so, removed the patient’s foley catheter to normalize daily function and called (the nursing home) multiple times to ensure a safe and smooth discharge plan. Heather is a compassionate and caring bedside nurse and worked very hard in the best interest of this patient…”

DAISY Award Mission

The DAISY Award was created in memory of Patrick Barnes who died at age 33 of complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura. The DAISY Foundation was established by his family to keep his spirit alive. Its primary mission is to express gratitude to nurses for the work they do for patients and their families every day. 

Who Can Nominate

Winners are nominated by staff members, patients and their families and selected by Hershey Medical Center’s Patient- and Family-Centered Care Advisory Council. See the award application and past winners on the Nursing Infonet site. Contact Kris Reynolds at 717-531-7025 with any questions.

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