I would like to nominate the 5 East staff for the DAISY Team Award for their resilience, perseverance, and commitment to all the patients they served and continue to serve during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of COVID, 5 East was assigned as the dedicated COVID unit. While patients with respiratory distress were rising exponentially, even though the staff lacked the knowledge and skills to care for such critically ill patients, they all quickly became experts and a great resource to the entire care team. Throughout uncertainty and fear, the staff took on the challenge and did a phenomenal job.

The staff's knowledge, fearlessness, and vocalization for patient safety and care resulted in many positive patient outcomes. With frequent updates to enterprise directives, shortages and/or changes in products, and lack of staffing resources, this did not discourage the staff. Instead, it united them more, each supporting one another and working tirelessly in an attempt to ensure the best patient outcomes. To ensure a quick response to a patient’s declining respiratory status, they created respiratory bags that included vital items to support the patient’s needs until the team arrived.

Holding hands with dying or scared patients, initiating FaceTime calls with family members prior to a patient’s intubation or transfer to the ICU to say last goodbyes, and bringing in items patient’s requested are only some of the examples of the attentiveness staff provided to patients in absence of family members. The staff even tried to cheer patients up by drawing smiley faces on their face shields.

5 East’s dedication to helping COVID patients was evident when they declined to switch units with another floor. Although the staff was tired and yearned for the pandemic to come to an end, they felt that they had mastered the skills needed to care for the patients. In addition, to try and increase the morale of the campus, a 5 East staff member created a video of pictures of various staff members throughout the campus without masks and smiles on their faces. This video was played in the main lobby daily to increase morale and unite the team.

Although nursing leadership for 5 East has changed since the start of the pandemic, the stories of the staff’s kindness and strength by patients, families, staff, and leaders make us feel proud to be leading such an amazing team. Another great attribute of 5 East; the amazing job they did caring for COVID patients over the course of two years with frequent changes in management. This unit truly deserves to be recognized as a DAISY Team.