Good Samaritan Society-Waukon nurse receives DAISY Award


Recipient of DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses at Good Samaritan Society in Waukon ... Barb White of Waukon is pictured in the photo above with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses that she received in a ceremony held at Good Samaritan Society - Waukon April 8. Along with the award certificate she is displaying in the photo at right, White is also holding a stone sculpture handcarved for Good Samaritan Society by the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe, a civilization that holds its caregivers in especially high regard. White has been a nurse at Good Samaritan Society-Waukon for more than 32 years, and pictured with her in the photo below at right adding special meaning to the April 8 award ceremony are two of the four Directors of Nursing White has worked with during her career, Connie Pronga (standing at left) and Sarah Welsh (seated). Photos submitted by Good Samaritan Society-Waukon.

Barb White of Waukon was recently awarded “The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses” at a presentation held Thursday, April 8 at the Good Samaritan Society - Waukon. White, who has provided more than 32 years of service as a nurse at Good Samaritan Society - Waukon, was presented the award by Steve Bargar, the new Executive Director at the Waukon facility.

Also present at the award ceremony were Sarah Welsh and Connie Pronga, two of the four Directors of Nursing that White has worked under during her three-plus decade career at Good Samaritan Society - Waukon. White was also presented with a stone sculpture hand-carved for Good Samaritan Society by the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe.

The serpentine stone sculptures hold special meaning because of the profound respect the Shona people pay their traditional healers. Shona healers are affectionately regarded as treasures by those they care for, and the well-being and safety of the healer is of community-wide importance.

“This describes exactly how we and our partners feel about nurses,” shared Good Samaritan Society administrators.

The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses was established around the year 2000 by the family of Patrick Barnes, a 33-year-old husband and first-time father who had survived Hodgkins Disease twice before being diagnosed with the auto-immune disease ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura). The award was a product of the family’s establishment of the DAISY Foundation, with DAISY standing for Diseases Attacking the Immune SYstem.

The Foundation, and more specifically the DAISY Award, are focused on ensuring that “nurses know how deserving they are of our society’s profound respect for the education, training, brainpower and skill they put into their work, and especially for the caring with which they deliver their care,” according to the Foundation’s mission.

Prior to Patrick’s passing, the Barnes family was able to spend eight weeks with him in the hospital, witnessing first-hand the care he received from the hospital nursing staff and being very moved by the way that care was presented, not only to Patrick but also to his family members. “We expected that Pat would have great clinical care; that was why he was in the hospital,” the family shared. “What we did not expect was the way his nurses delivered that care - the kindness and compassion they gave Pat and all of us in his family every day.” The family established the DAISY Award as their way to “say thank you for the gifts nurses give their patients and families every day, just as we had experienced.”