DAISY Award Winners: Heidi Ellington, RN and Kelly Mills, RN 

Two Nurses at Morristown-Hamblen was honored recently with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. This award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s program to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day. The DAISY Award was established in 1999 by the family of a patient who had received extraordinary care and compassion from his nurses during his final days. 

Congratulations to Heidi and Kelly for being recognized with the DAISY award. Heidi and Kelly was nominated by Lisa Kelly, DNP, RN, CPHQ. Read her nomination below: 

“I would like to nominate Heidi and Kelly for a joint recognition daisy award.  They both dealt with a very difficult patient with grace, patience, and kindness in a way that only a nurse can.  I had been called to the room to assist with the patient’s behavior and to accompany the provider to round on the patient.  Security was also called to the room due to the patient’s continued use of profanity.  Kelly and Heidi still treated the patient with kindness and saw him as a person needing care.  They did not allow themselves to be run over, yet maintained a caring attitude.  Heidi took out the patient’s line with a room full of people in a tense situation while Kelly did his discharge to facilitate the patient being able to leave the hospital.  Both of them remained levelheaded and professional the entire time.  It was a proud moment for me as the CNO to see how these two nurses treated this patient and his family.   Not all patients are nice and certainly not all patients are easy, but at the end of the day they are people who need care.  They took care of this gentleman the same way as they would the nicest, easiest to work with patient.  I watched as both of them walked into their next patient room and didn’t take any of what they had just faced with them and gave their next patients that same great care. This is what nursing is about.“ 

Patients, families, and coworkers may nominate nurses. To submit a nomination or learn more about The DAISY award, visit DAISY Award | Morristown-Hamblen Healthcare System