Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children Nurse Wins Award for Extraordinary Work
Nurse Wins DAISY Award After Caring for Infant in NICU
Falls Church, VA – (December 19, 2007) — This week Inova Fairfax Hospital proudly presented its first ever DAISY Award For Extraordinary Nurses to a nurse who provides outstanding care for her patients. Katie Herold, RN, a nurse who works in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children, was recognized for the expert and loving care she showed for an infant and his family. This infant spent more than eight months in the NICU, and when he was finally able to go home, Herold presented the family with a video she had made showing snapshots of the infant while at the hospital.
“Katie went above and beyond in caring for this family,” said Patricia Conway-Morana, RN, chief nurse executive, Inova Fairfax Hospital. “It’s important that our nurses know their work is highly valued, and The DAISY Award program is one way for us to recognize dedicated nurses who really make a difference in the lives of patients and their families.”
The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation, based in California, was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Barnes died in late 1999 at the age of 33 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), an auto-immune disease. The care Barnes and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses.
Patients, family members and staff can nominate a nurse, and each month the nursing administration at Inova Fairfax Hospital will select a DAISY Award winner. The honoree will receive a certificate commending her or him for being an “Extraordinary Nurse” and a sculpture called A Healer’s Touch, hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Africa.
All of the nurses in the honoree’s unit will also receive Cinnabon cinnamon rolls. This tradition came about from Barnes’ time in the hospital. One day he asked his family to bring him a cinnamon roll plus enough for all of the nurses on his unit. Today, with the help of Cinnabon, The DAISY Foundation carries on this tradition by serving cinnamon rolls to the nurses on the honoree’s unit.
Inova Fairfax Hospital is among 180 hospitals and hospices nationally, and the only hospital in Virginia, committed to The DAISY Award program. Since the program started in 2001 an estimated 2,000 nurses across the country have received the award.
The DAISY Foundation’s overall goal is to help fight diseases of the immune system. DAISY has programs to help fund research to improve treatment and ultimately cure ITP and to provide assistance to ITP support groups. More information is available on their website
www.daisyfoundation.org.
Inova Health System is a not-for-profit health care system based in Northern Virginia that consists of hospitals and other health services, including emergency and urgent care centers, home care, nursing homes, mental health and blood donor services, and wellness classes. Governed by a voluntary board of community members, Inova’s mission is to improve the health of the diverse community it serves through excellence in patient care, education and research. Inova provides a healthy environment for its patients, families, visitors, staff and physicians by prohibiting tobacco use on its campuses.