Lisa Rizzi-Wagner
A hush falls over the crowded conference room as coworkers and well-wishers lie in wait for the newest of our nurses to be told she has won The DAISY Award. Lisa Rizzi-Wagner, RN, BSN, CCRN (CTICU), Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, walks in – totally unsuspecting – and a grin begins to spread over her face at the sight of her friends and family. Lisa was honored as The DAISY Award winner for January in an emotional ceremony on Jan. 29. Her husband and daughters were sneaked into the hospital to surprise her. Each month in numerous hospitals and medical facilities around the country, Award recipients are chosen by their nurse administrators, peers, physicians, patients and families to receive this honor. As of December 2008, more than 3,000 nurses have received The DAISY Award. Since every nurse who receives The DAISY Award reminds us that her/his entire team is deserving of recognition and that it takes a team to provide great patient care, all the nurses and staff in the recipient's unit are treated to Cinnabon® cinnamon rolls at each presentation. Every DAISY nurse also is presented with a daisy plant, a certificate, a special DAISY Award pin and a “Healer’s Touch” statue, handmade by artisans in Zimbabwe. Each smooth, stone sculpture is uniquely hand-carved and is a work of art. One of Lisa’s nominators had these kind words to say about her: “One of CHLA’s core values is family-centered care, and when I think of the kind of nurse that I aspire to be in this department, I think of Lisa. She is not from a Spanish-speaking background, but specifically learned Spanish so she could better communicate with our Spanish-speaking patients and families. She is always thinking of opportunities for parents to bond with their newborn infants (a large population in the CTICU). She often offers and encourages parents to hold their intubated babies...”
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