DAISY nomination says they went above and beyond for her baby boy
ROME, Ga., Feb. 8, 2024 – The mother of a baby boy who was cared for at Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit wanted to recognize someone for the outstanding compassion they showed him.
She ended up nominating six registered nurses who she said went “above and beyond for my family."
“No mom wants to leave their baby, but there was not a single day I worried about him while he was under their care," she wrote in the nomination form.
NICU nurses Caroline Banks, Kim Chandler, Whitney Chandler, Larketti Winston, Tamela Cagle and Avery Floyd were recognized Wednesday as DAISY winners for treating mom and baby like family.
“From making him Christmas ornaments, decorating his room, and buying him outfits out of their own pockets, he truly was blessed with the best nurses," the mother wrote.
The family of Patrick Barnes established the DAISY Award to honor bedside nurses after he died from an autoimmune disease while being treated in a Seattle hospital.
The NICU team at Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center was also given cinnamon buns, a DAISY tradition because it was one of the few things Barnes could eat while he was hospitalized.
“I think it is very special to win as team award," said Sheila Bennett, senior vice president and chief of patient services at Atrium Health Floyd. She said the only other team DAISY Award she could recall at Floyd was one given to ICU teammates in 2017 when they helped organize a baptism for a patient who was dying.
Read about that award here:
https://bit.ly/49JBRFp
The DAISY Foundation is an international organization. Its website,
www.daisyfoundation.org features past winners.
About Atrium Health Floyd
The Atrium Health Floyd family of health care services is a leading medical provider and economic force in northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama. Atrium Health Floyd is part of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Advocate Health, the third-largest nonprofit health system in the United States, created from the combination of Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health. Atrium Health Floyd employs more than 3,500 teammates who provide care in over 40 medical specialties at three hospitals: Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center – a 304-bed full-service, acute care hospital and regional referral center in Rome, Georgia; Atrium Health Floyd Polk Medical Center in Cedartown, Georgia; and Atrium Health Floyd Cherokee Medical Center in Centre, Alabama; as well as Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center Behavioral Health – a freestanding 53-bed behavioral health facility in Rome – and also primary care and urgent care network locations throughout northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama. Atrium Health Floyd also operates a stand-alone emergency department in Chattooga County, the first such facility to be built from the ground-up in Georgia.
About Advocate Health
Advocate Health is the third-largest nonprofit integrated health system in the United States – created from the combination of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health. Providing care under the names Advocate Health Care in Illinois, Atrium Health in the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, and Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin, Advocate Health is a national leader in clinical innovation, health outcomes, consumer experience and value-based care, with Wake Forest University School of Medicine serving as the academic core of the enterprise. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Advocate Health serves nearly 6 million patients and is engaged in hundreds of clinical trials and research studies. It is nationally recognized for its expertise in cardiology, neurosciences, oncology, pediatrics and rehabilitation, as well as organ transplants, burn treatments and specialized musculoskeletal programs. Advocate Health employs nearly 155,000 team members across 68 hospitals and over 1,000 care locations and offers one of the nation's largest graduate medical education programs with over 2,000 residents and fellows across more than 200 programs. Committed to equitable care for all, Advocate Health provides nearly $6 billion in annual community benefits.