Sarah Bengel

Left to right: Lynn Frank, chief nursing officer and Sarah Bengel, R.N.

For a nurse, it’s so rewarding when patients share their appreciation for your care. And when their

families also notice your special touch, it affirms the  reason you became a nurse in the first place.

Sarah Bangel, RN recently had that experience when she received a surprise ceremony for a DAISY Award.

The daughter of one of Sarah’s patients in Luther Midelfort’s Medical Telemetry/Intermediate Care Department had nominated Sarah for the award:

“(Sarah) was one of my father’s nurses during his one-week stay. Sarah’s nursing skills are outstanding. She took great care of my father with her nursing skills but more importantly with her compassionate caring. She made sure he was comfortable, she answered all of his and our questions, and she made his stay easier.

“Sarah, thank you for going above and beyond for my father and for our family.”

The praise meant a great deal to Sarah. “It’s so rewarding to know that you make a difference for our patients,” she said. “It’s a pleasure doing a job that I love. It really is.” Sarah was given a beautiful statue and treated, along with her coworkers, to delicious cinnamon rolls, a DAISY tradition. “I’m not used to all this attention,” Sarah said, signing the DAISY banner that then hung in her department for a month. “You deserve it,” said clinical nursing director Collene Gorell.

Since she interviewed for her job, Sarah has been the “epitome of what a nurse would be,” said Deb Brown, director of Medical Telemetry/Intermediate Care. “We immediately saw the compassion in her eyes; we immediately saw why she went into nursing,” Deb said. “She’s quiet, but she gives that excellent care and that little extra touch to her  patients.”