St. Joseph's/Candler DAISY Team Award winners
We'd like to congratulate all our DAISY Team Award winners. The DAISY Team Award includes not only nurses, but also respiratory therapists, unit clerks, PCTs and other caregivers. Nominations are submitted internally. For winning, everyone on the unit receives a DAISY Team pin and a certificate. A DAISY Team banner will temporary hang on the unit that one representative will sign while a plaque recognizing the win will permanently hang in the unit.
St. Joseph's Hospital CCU/CVICU
The patients that come to the CCU/CVICU are scared, hurting, confused, worried and sometimes alone. Their families, if there are any, are in the same state of mind. It is a scary place with all the bells and beeps going off continually and people running to and from. Sometimes they hear moaning or crying or yelling. But, often they hear gentle, yet firm, voices encouraging them, informing them, instructing them and comforting them. Those voices belong to the nurses that work in the CCU/CVICU. These are the people whom patients know will keep them safe, help them heal and prepare them to go home. The nurses of CCU/CVICU take their positions very seriously. They are specially trained to meet the needs of heart patients and their families.
The Clinical Educator of the unit continually educates the staff on the latest innovations for care of patients. They are keen to learn and to put new strategies to work. However, there is no training for the spiritual or emotional or heroic heart. This comes naturally to these people. Without thinking they instinctively know when tenderness is needed. That gentle touch, kind word, sympathetic look are all delivered with the kind of love that is placed in their hearts by God himself.
Not only do they tend to their patients, but they also support each other. CCU/CVICU is very busy unit and things can turn nasty in (pardon the literal pun) a heartbeat. These people can convey a look of need to a colleague, and I have seen that need answered with no words spoken. They are a well-run machine and don’t get in each other’s way but complete their individual tasks. When moments happen for example someone just needs a tissue and a breath, someone else is willing to step in to make that “quiet moment” happen. The sense of humor they maintain keeps spirits up so the atmosphere is not dark. They are a team in every way. Physical evidence of the care they give patients and family often finds its way on to the unit in the way of cards, snacks, We Care and Smart Star Awards. These words of thanks and acknowledgement lift this team’s spirits and then they are off and running again. I am happy to be a small part of this team – in the background, giving what love and support they may need from me. I watch from the sidelines and am in awe of the work each individual does. Their work ethic is astounding and inspiring. I do not know how they keep up the pace they maintain for 12 hours and come back and do it all again.
A lot of the time in the ICUs, you could focus on the bad and the ugly of the situation. I have found for CCU, we are consistently showing up to focus on the good. April 29th, at the end of day shift, we were dragging to finish a Monday. It was at shift change when the post-op Aortic Valve that day recently extubated started to complain of chest tightness and pressure. Erin Dugan, primary RN, notified the surgeon when she noticed her patient become white and dumping of bright red blood in her chest tubes. Quickly, staff started getting in their roles preparing for an emergency. While one of the surgeons came to the bedside, staff had started priming and spiking blood, calling blood bank to notify to more products going to be needed, rolling in the open chest cart and crash cart to the bedside and calling Respiratory Therapy to emergently intubate. The team work and quick response allowed for the patient to never arrest, get emergently opened at the bedside by providers and moved to the OR for repair. The patient was extubated the next morning and out of the bed to the chair later that day. Although CSU-ALS is a new training that has only been implemented over a year and only a handful of times have we had to complete. Our experienced CT surgeon described the response as a well-oiled machine.
I would like a field of “Daisies” for these hard working, tender-hearted, intelligent and funny people of my CCU/CVICU.
Candler ICU
It was a celebratory first at St. Joseph’s/Candler on Nov. 6, 2024, as we recognized the first ever DAISY Team Award to the Candler Hospital Intensive Care Unit. Candler ICU’s nomination came from Reema Ahmed, the Candler ICU manager. It reads:
“The staff in Candler ICU makes a great team. They represent how a unit is supposed to be like. They work together, care and go out of their way for patients and their families. We had a patient who was with us off and on for months. She was on the ventilator for a long time. The nurses, PCTs and RTs worked tirelessly with her. When she did her breathing trials, we encouraged her and held her hand so she knew she wasn’t alone. It was so wonderful to see her off the vent and going home. Some of us still keep in touch with her.
Another patient we had became a family member to us. She started off in PCU then came to ICU. She had long COVID and ended up on the vent. At one point she was heavily sedated and paralyzed. We all would stop by and see her and her family. Her husband and daughters became just as important as staff. When she went to long-term rehab, we followed up with her and would go visit her every chance we got. It was so nice to see her getting discharged and going home after months of being hospitalized. She comes to visit and brings us cookies every chance she gets.
The team we have in ICU doesn’t hesitate to go out of their way. We have recorded heartbeats for patients who were dying so their loved ones could remember them. We have made memory boxes and Face Timed/called loved ones so they could say their goodbyes. The staff in ICU is a family and we also celebrate milestones in our lives like weddings, baby showers, etc. When one of our own co-worker’s son was hospitalized, we made sure to make a care package. Some of the staff donated PTO. This is a unit where we all work together and make a difference in everyone’s lives. I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else and am so proud to manage such an amazing team of nurses, PCTs, RTs and unit clerks.”
What an amazing testament to the job well done by every co-worker on ICU. Congratulations on being the first DAISY Team Award winning unit.