UAMS Endoscopy Department team members include (from left) Sandra Sellers, Endoscopy Assistant; Lajoya Wiley, Endoscopy Assistant; Marilyn Caldwell, RN; Daisy Recipient George aulton, RN; Cynara Bennett, RN.

Marilyn Caldwell, a registered nurse in the endoscopy lab at UAMS, recently earned a DAISY Award, a nationally recognized award presented by the DAISY foundation. But she doesn’t believe she deserves any special attention. Instead, she says, “I never expected to get rewarded for doing what makes someone else feel better.” 

Caldwell had a patient who was diagnosed with end-stage small cell carcinoma of the lungs.

“My patient had been there for a couple of weeks, and his wife rarely left the room,” she says. 

With no transportation to her home more than 50 miles away, she had no clean clothes and her hair needed to be fixed. 

After two weeks, Caldwell had a girlfriend pick up some essential beauty supplies and hair products for the woman. She also asked volunteer services to buy her some new clothes.

After the makeover, Caldwell says, she returned to her husband’s bedside. The look on his face was one of absolute delight. 

“He told her how beautiful she looked and it made us all cry,” she says. “I’ll never forget the look of adoration and love in his eyes. The price of a perm was a small price to pay to see that look. The last thing he saw was how beautiful his wife was. He drifted off into a deep sleep later that evening and never woke up,” she says.

“Marilyn would tell you, ‘I was just doing my job,’” says UAMS nurse recruiter Susan Erickson, R.N., M.N.Sc., B.C., CHCR.

In one way, the DAISY Award was a way of saying “good job,” but in another, the award recognizes every nurse who puts on the uniform and shows compassion and kindness. The award celebrates their hard work, dedication and professionalism.

“It’s a very positive award for nurses,” says Becky Kersten, RN, a nursing director at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. Only RNs can be nominated for and receive the DAISY Award.

According to the Daisy Foundation Website, the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses recognizes the compassionate care of registered nurses (RNs). There are three criteria for selecting recipients, including their compassionate quality and family-centered care. These nurses “serve as a role model by representing the profession of nursing and upholding excellence in standards of practice” and the award “demonstrates that caring and compassion are integral to providing patient care.”

DAISY Award nominations can be submitted by co-workers, patients, family members and physicians, which makes the award even more valuable to the nurses. 

“They’re very excited and very humbled at the same time,” Kersten says.

Erickson hands out the DAISY award on a monthly basis and admits she cries every time she recognizes an RN. 

“Nurses are humble and look at service as part of their job,” she says.

In May, UAMS was one of three Little Rock hospitals, including Baptist Health and Arkansas Children’s Hospital, visited by the DAISY organization. 

“We were honored,” Erickson says.

The DAISY isn’t the only recognition Arkansas’ nurses are earning. Last year, Gordon Low, an advanced practice nurse at UAMS, earned the 2008 NPWH (Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health) Inspirations in Women’s Health Award at the NPWH clinical conference in Seattle.

Low, who works with the UAMS ANGELS (Antenatal and Neonatal Guidelines, Education and Learning System) Program, helped create and launch two unique programs that use telemedicine technology to improve access to care for rural Arkansas women and women in prison. 

Telemedicine provides live, two-way interactive video between a remote location and UAMS’ sub-specialists. 

At the Arkansas State Hospital in Little Rock, the administration wanted to recognize their nurses so badly that they decided to raise money to fund a program. After an annual survey of the hospital’s nurses, management realized one component missing was a way to recognize the outstanding work of their nurses, says ASH assistant administrator Becky Webber.

Since the hospital is a state agency, they can’t use tax money for awards. Instead of giving up the idea, they went to work selling flowers for Valentine’s Day and candy baskets at Easter.

“It made us feel good,” Webber says about the fund-raising effort.

The Outstanding Performance Award recipients are selected by the employee celebration committee members. 

There are two areas of recognition: excellent performances in life saving situations and recognition from patients for outstanding care given.

So now, twice a year the hospital recognizes outstanding nurses at a celebration ceremony. 

They receive a pewter pin, a certificate for their wall and one for their personnel folder.

“It’s raised our nurses’ spirits,” Webber says. 

The awards also had an unintended effect, including improved staff morale and a reduction in the number of sick days taken by the hospital’s nurses.

Most importantly, Webber says it allows the administration to say “good job” to their nurses. 

“Our nurses do an amazing job. They’re all awesome,” she says.

The White River Medical Center in Batesville recognizes its staff for individual efforts through its Employee of the Month program. 

The employee gets a choice parking spot for a month and dinner at the restaurant of their choice, on the hospital’s dime of course.

“It’s a great program,” says Michelle Bishop, RN, MSN, WRMC nurse director and Magnet coordinator.

While the White River administration was busy recognizing its employees, the hospital has been garnering recognition of its own. 

It was one of eleven organizations recognized by the Governor’s Quality Award Program for performance excellence last fall. 

ASH staff members Myka Chumley, Emily Baggett, Debbie Chambers, Kelly Collins and Indira Thompson received the Outstanding Performance Award.

In addition, White River Health System recently received a number of awards from the Arkansas Hospital Association, including a Diamond Award, three Certificates of Excellence and two Judges’ Merit Awards for outstanding hospital advertising, marketing and public relations.

Sometimes a simple “thank you” is all that it takes. It may not seem like much to some, but to the staff of CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System, those two little words go a long way.

“We have a Helping Hand program that allows patients to nominate caregivers who have made a difference in their care while at our hospital,” says the program’s coordinator Susan Landreaux.

The brand new program recognizes “a caregiver for going the extra mile,” she says.

Once nominated, the nurse, doctor or other caregiver is recognized during a department meeting. They receive a Helping Hand pin and certificate and, since June, Landreaux has handed out 15 awards.

“It’s real exiting for our associates to be recognized,” she says.