KOKOMO, Ind. – The Indiana University Kokomo School of Nursing recognized students and faculty for compassionate, skillful care, with its first-ever class of DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses recipients.
Dean Susan Hendricks hosted a virtual awards ceremony to commend three students and one faculty selected, as well as the nominees. The DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Foundation’s goal is to honor nurses who go above and beyond and make extraordinary differences in patients’ and families’ experiences in health care.
“It’s a reminder that nursing is not tasks and technology, but human relationships,” she said. “In a larger sense, during these challenging times in which we are working hard to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are really here to honor all of nursing, to raise us all up. I can’t think of a better time to do so.”
Students and faculty contribute nominations, with winners chosen by a committee chaired by Sonya Green, clinical assistant professor of nursing.
Recipients of the student awards included Jaycie Wright, a senior from LaFontaine; Kaylee Bohn, a junior from Peru; and Ashley Honeycutt, a sophomore from Summitville.
“The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students is designed to remind students, even on your toughest days in nursing school, why you want to be a nurse,” said Stacy Rosales, senior lecturer in nursing and selection committee member. “Students with a true calling to nursing never lose sight of the fact that they are treating a human being who needs all the sensitivity and compassion we can bring to them, while they are in the height of emotion and most vulnerable.”
The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty provides recognition and appreciation to nursing faculty for their commitment and inspirational influence on students.
Jill Hunt, lecturer in nursing, received the award. Student-written nominations cited her natural leadership, caring for students, and said she “goes above and beyond to make sure her students understand the material she is teaching.”
Additional nominees included students Heather Downey, Monticello; Amber Fain, Kokomo; Brandon Hewitt, Marion; Alena Nusbaum, Carmel; Stephanie Paul, Kokomo; and Jessica Roberts, Greentown.
Faculty nominees were Samantha Fouts, lecturer in nursing, April Mouser, associate professor of nursing, Shawna Lewis, lecturer in nursing, Stephanie Pratt, clinical assistant professor of nursing, Lesley Connolly, lecturer in nursing, and Bridget Whitmore, clinical associate professor of nursing.
Hendricks said the School of Nursing will present the DAISY Awards in December and May each year, with three students recognized each time, an adjunct faculty member in December, and a full-time faculty member in May.
More than 3,400 academic and health care organizations in 20 countries currently honor their nurses with the award.
The awards were presented in partnership with the DAISY Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes by his family. Barnes died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. The care he and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired the creation of The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses, an evidenced-based means of providing nurse recognition and thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.
Indiana University Kokomo celebrates 75 years as north central Indiana’s choice for higher education.
