Published: Nov. 10, 2014
Doreen Smith, RN, was recognized with the October DAISY award for supporting a family faced with a tough decision whose personal beliefs and healing practices were not founded in traditional medical care.
Smith worked very hard to establish trust with the family who had doubts about Sparrow and were not ready to stop care for their loved one who had been declared brain dead. Doreen did not let her personal opinions get in the way of supporting the family and she went a step further - she took the time to get to know the family and understand them.
Despite the very low likelihood the family’s unconventional interventions and healing practices would work, Smith helped them to carry them out and served as a consistent face to navigate their requests for family meetings, rituals, and to understand their unique thoughts on medicine. Further, she helped her peers to understand this delicate situation to ensure the family received support from all of their Caregivers.
“Doreen represented Nursing with the utmost class and made me proud to be her manager,” read her nomination form. “Many Nurses would not have handled this situation in such a dignified manner. She made her coworkers proud to be Nurses and to work with her in the NCU.”
From left: Gail Jehl (PECSH Rep), Meseret Hailu (DAISY Committee Member), Margeaux Long (Nursing Supervisor, nominated Doreen), Tracy Farthing (Manager NCU), Mary Lou Wesley (Senior Vice President, Chief Nursing Officer), Doreen, Toni Beymer (Director Critical Care), Chris Jodoin (Vice President of Nursing)
Doreen was recognized for this high quality care with the DAISY Award in a surprise ceremony held Oct. 31.
DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System, and the DAISY Award is a national program created in memory of J. Patrick Barnes died in 1999 of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura, or ITP at 33 years old. His family was overwhelmed by the skillful and amazingly compassionate Nurses that cared for Pat, and the DAISY Foundation and Award were created as an expression of their gratitude.
The DAISY Award is a way to recognize and make visible the contribution and value of Nurses wherever nursing is practiced.
Doreen received a certificate, a DAISY pin to wear at work and beautiful serpentine stone sculpture carved by the artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe. The sculpture depicts the embracing relationship Nurses have with their Patients.