The DAISY Award

What is the DAISY Award?

The DAISY Award is an international program that rewards and celebrates the extraordinary clinical skill and compassionate care given by nurses every day. Henry Ford Health is proud to be a DAISY Award Partner, recognizing one of our nurses with this special honor on a regular basis.

Each DAISY Award Honoree is recognized at a public ceremony and receives: a beautiful certificate, a DAISY Award pin, and a hand-carved stone sculpture entitled, A Healer's Touch. Additionally, everyone in the unit will celebrate with Cinnabon^® cinnamon rolls- a favorite of Patrick's during his illness. The Barnes Family asks that whenever nurses smell that wonderful cinnamon aroma, they stop for a moment and think about how special they are.

How to nominate an extraordinary nurse

Patients, visitors, nurses, physicians, and employees may nominate a deserving nurse by filling out a DAISY nomination form and submitting it in the DAISY submission boxes on each unit or completing our online nomination form. Please nominate a nurse who consistently meets the following criteria:

• Is compassionate, trustworthy, and caring in all situations
• Makes a special connection with the patient and family
• Does an excellent job educating the patient and family, and listens to any questions or concerns they may have
• Demonstrates clinical care and commitment to excellence
• Advocates for the patient and is a problem solver
• Is a role model in the nursing community
• Collaborates well with physicians and others
• Goes above and beyond

About the DAISY Foundation

The DAISY Foundation was established in 1999 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes who died of complications of the auto-immune disease Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) at the age of 33. (DAISY is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system.) During Pat's 8-week hospitalization, his family was awestruck by the care and compassion his nurses provided—not only to Pat—but to everyone in his family. So one of the goals they set in creating a Foundation in Pat's memory was to recognize extraordinary nurses everywhere who make an enormous difference in the lives of so many people by the super-human work they do every day.