Frequently Asked Questions

Q:    What is The DAISY Award?

A: As Patrick’s family, we brainstormed what to do in his memory.  We vividly recalled the skillful and compassionate care Patrick received from his nurses during his eight-week hospitalization.  We wanted to say “thank you” to nurses everywhere by establishing a recognition program - The DAISY Award For Extraordinary Nurses (The DAISY Award) - to honor the super-human work nurses do for patients and families every day.  In creating The DAISY Award, there were three elements we wanted to ensure our recognition program included:

"It's the story behind the DAISY Award that gives the program exceptional meaning. It is born out of what we do every day as nurses."

-Sandra Rader, DNP, MSA, RN NEA-BC Chief Nursing Officer, VP Patient Care Services, UPMC Shadyside

• A partnership with healthcare organizations to provide on-going recognition of the clinical skill and especially the compassion nurses demonstrate at the bedside all year long.
• Flexibility so that The DAISY Award may be tailored to each hospital’s unique culture and values.
• A turn-key program with The DAISY Foundation providing most everything you need to implement The DAISY Award.

Q. Given that DAISY Awards are presented throughout the year, how many presentations per year should we consider making?
A: This is an important consideration for each of your facilities, so we hope you will give it careful thought.  Based on many years of running the program during which we have received an enormous amount of feedback from DAISY partner organizations, and research conducted among nurses, we have developed guidelines to aid your decision.  It is clear that the impact of The DAISY Award is greatest on nurses who actually experience a DAISY presentation, either in their unit or at a more public gathering.  So the more DAISY Awards you can present, the greater benefit to your staff and organization.  We will be happy to share our partners' best practices with you and help you decide the right number of Awards per year for your staff.

Q: What will our program cost each year?
A: The annual cost of the program depends on the size of the nursing staff and number of DAISY Awards per year to be presented. This will be explained when you complete our request for information form by clicking here.

Q:    What does a nurse who wins The DAISY Award receive?
A: DAISY Award recipients are nominated by their, peers, physicians, patients and families, and other staff and administrators to receive:

• A certificate held in a leather holder, proclaiming the recipient an "Extraordinary Nurse."
• A DAISY Award pin (We’ve learned that nurses love to wear pins on their I.D. badges!).
• A unique, hand-carved serpentine stone sculpture from Zimbabwe, entitled "A Healer's Touch." Click here for more about these beautiful works of art.
• A Spotlight page on our website, featuring a photo and telling the story of why this nurse was honored.

“We love The DAISY Award because it happens not just once a year but every month. Our nurses are constantly honored in front of the public.”

_Barbara Hannon, RN, MSN, CPHQ, Magnet Coordinator and Chair of Professional Nursing Practice, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

All the nurses and staff in the recipient's unit are treated to Cinnabon® cinnamon rolls at every presentation. The reason?  Once, Patrick ate his father’s Cinnabon roll when he was in the hospital without an appetite for food.  He then requested one for the next day - and enough for all the nurses in the unit.
Our message to every nurse present: whenever you smell that wonderful cinnamon aroma, stop for a minute and think of how special you are because you are a nurse. You may take for granted the things you do for your patients, but they surely do not.

Each DAISY Award facility also receives a large celebratory banner that is hung in the recipient's unit for a month, generating very positive conversation about the special role nurses play in patient care.

“The Welcome Kit is great, everything is put together for you. They think of all the details, so you don't have to! The staff is extremely engaged in the process, they always have everything set up when I get to the presentation at the unit. Our leaders always leave the DAISY Award Presentations with a sense of goose bumps."

-Nancy Ray, MA, RN Senior VP, Associate Administrator, Chief Nursing

The presentation generally takes place in the nurse’s unit, often as a surprise to the Honoree.  Our Welcome Kit includes a detailed outline on how to present the Award. Click here to receive an email letter of introduction and more details.

Q: Who generally runs the program in the hospital?
A: The CNO generally assigns this program to a team who will enthusiastically steer it and tailor it to fit your mission and values as a healthcare organization. We will do everything we can to assist the coordinator(s) for the program.  The team may be either an existing committee (e.g. Shared Governance Professional Practice Council, Recruitment/Retention Committee, etc.) or a committee dedicated to implementing The DAISY Award. If you have a marketing person on staff, we suggest he or she work closely with the DAISY team to launch the program.

“One of the reasons the DAISY Award is so popular and effective  at our hospital is that it is staff led with the chair of the committee being a staff nurse. The DAISY Award has become a part of our hospitals culture and a sacred even at each unit."

-Becky Montesino RN, BSN, MS CENP, Chief Nursing Officer, Baptist Hospital of Miami, Florida

Q:  How is a nurse chosen to receive The DAISY Award?
A: A DAISY Award is given to a deserving nurse of your choice each month, based on criteria you establish to meet your hospital’s mission and values.  The DAISY Award was established to celebrate the extraordinary compassion nurses provide their patients and families every day. So we ask that your program be a merit-based award that honors not only great clinical skill and leadership but especially strong patient care and compassion.

Q:    How will our hospital and our nurses benefit from The DAISY Award?
A: There is a lot of literature about the impact of recognizing nurses on job satisfaction, commitment to one’s organization and colleagues, and more. Please read the literature review on our website for an in-depth understanding of the work that has been done on the value of recognition. Feedback we get about the program is that it is an excellent tool for nurse retention, inspirational, a great morale booster, a way to develop role models, and a meaningful reminder for nurses as to why they became nurses in the first place. Nurses really appreciate the support and respect they receive from their peers and administrators through The DAISY Award. Many of our participants run the program out of their Recruitment/Retention offices, so we know they feel it benefits them.

The best way to learn about the program’s benefits is to hear what nurse leaders who have The DAISY Award in their organization have to say about the program.:

“The DAISY Award is a tremendous morale booster. To be rewarded for compassionate care, as opposed to being rewarded for a new degree or academic achievement, is very special."
-Nancy Pappas, RN, Awards and Recognition Coordinator, Morristown Memorial Hospital

"The nomination stories read at the DAISY Award presentations in the units give our young nurses an informal mentor. The DAISY Award calls out exemplary nursing practice and generates a lot of discussion throughout the hospital. For me, DAISY gives me an energy boost. It's my 'Redbull of nursing.’"

-Martie Moore, RN, BSN, MAOM, CPHQ, Chief Nursing Officer, Providence St. Vincent Medical Center

Please click here for more testimonials.

"We're rich with evidence because of the DAISY Nominations, because of the stories we get from DAISY. The stories demonstrate how we 'live Magnet.'"

-Becky Montesino, RN, BSN, MS CENP, Chief Nursing Officer, Baptist Hospital of Miami, Florida

Q: What contributes to the significant growth of the DAISY Award program?
A: As you can see on the left, the nursing profession is tremendously supportive of The DAISY Foundation. It all started with The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) who put their significant marketing resources behind expanding the program. The American Nurse Credentialing Center supports The DAISY Award for all Magnet® and Pathway to Excellence® organizations and those “on the journey.” (The DAISY Award was honored with ANCC’s President’s Special Recognition Award at the National Magnet Conference in October, 2010.) Now, several more professional organizations work with us to spread DAISY's message.  Most importantly, the program is having a meaningful impact because it uniquely celebrates the reason most nurses say they became nurses to begin with – to have a relationship and personal caring touch with people during their most vulnerable time.

"The greatest impact is on the DAISY Honoree and the whole team they work with. The presentations are always tearful and joyous. This is how DAISY is unique - it gets to the core of what nursing is, what really drives the caring profession."

-Catherine Tolbert, Senior VP of Nursing, Chief Nursing Officer, Humility of Mary Health Partners

Q:    How do I get started with The DAISY Award?
A: It’s simple. Just click here, complete the Commitment Form and click “submit.”  We will immediately send you our Welcome Kit, your detailed guide to planning and implementing the program, and we will be eager to help you get ready to make your first DAISY Award. The Welcome Kit is both a binder we will mail to your DAISY Coordinator and access to the Resource Center of our website where nomination forms, marketing materials, best DAISY practices, etc. are found. Again, our goal is to make this program turnkey for you, so most everything has already been created for your use.

Q:     What if I have more questions?
A: If you have additional questions about The DAISY Award, we have a number of DAISY Mentors who would be happy to provide an “insider’s perspective” of how the program works. These include CNOs and DAISY Coordinators who have been running the program for some time. They have eagerly volunteered to share their experiences with others who are considering the program or who have committed and are looking for extra advice. To get the list of our Mentors, and to ask any question you may have, please contact our Regional Program Directors: In the Eastern time zone, tenabarnescarraher@DAISYfoundation.org. All other time zones: melissabarnes@DAISYfoundation.org. For facilities outside the U.S., please email petermaher@DAISYfoundation.org.