GRHS awards next group of DAISY'S

WEST BURLINGTON – Great River Health awarded their next round of DAISY Awards for Extraordinary Nurses®. The award is part of the DAISY Foundation's mission to recognize the extraordinary, compassionate nursing care they provide patients and families every day. 
The Great River Health DAISY Award recipients are:
Heather Goetsch is a registered nurse in the Emergency Department at Henry County Health Center. She was nominated by two different family members for the care she provided their mother-in-law/grandmother. In their words, “Her (Heather’s) bedside manner was exemplary. Heather took care of my Grandma in the ER and I have never seen the kind of compassion in anyone that I saw that morning. She was so very kind and so very knowledgeable. She is the true meaning of ‘nurse’. Her bedside manner eased all of us during a very tense situation. There needs to be so many more nurses like this.”
Tyler Meldrum, a Registered Nurse on the Intensive Care Unit at Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center, West Burlington. Tyler was nominated by both the family of a patient and a co-worker. They wrote, Tyler cared for a patient multiple days in a row. He went above and beyond taking time to explain physician findings and to help both patient and family come to a plan of care moving forward. It was decided that the patient would be most comfortable and have best quality of life with our Hospice House services.  After getting to know the patient, he learned that the patient volunteered to play the piano, here at Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center, West Burlington. Tyler went out of his way to arrange, along with family, for the patient to stop in the lobby, before heading to the hospice house, so he could play for our visitors and staff just one more time. It was an emotional and wonderful celebration of life for the patient, who so generously shared his gift to our facility for so long. Once the patient had finished playing, Tyler took time out of his day accompanied by family and friends, to push the patient around the lake to the Hospice House, rather than the family driving him there.
The award recipient is chosen by a committee at Great River Health to receive The DAISY Award. Heather and Tyler were honored at a special Daisy Award ceremony in their department attended by the Honoree’s colleagues, patients, and visitors.  Each Honoree received a certificate commending her as an "Extraordinary Nurse."  The certificate reads: "In deep appreciation of all you do, who you are, and the incredibly meaningful difference you make in the lives of so many people."  Honorees also received a DAISY Award pin, and a beautiful and meaningful sculpture called A Healer’s Touch, hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe. The Great River Health Daisy Award recipients will be featured on the Daisy Foundation website along with recipients from around the world. Videos of the full ceremonies can be viewed on the Great River Health Facebook page.
Nurses may be nominated by patients, families, and colleagues on an ongoing basis.  The next recipients will be awarded in December.
Great River Health employs over 815 nurses, providing patient care at their Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center - Fort Madison and West Burlington - campuses; along with Henry County Health Center in Mount Pleasant.
More information is available at http://DAISYfoundation.org.