Photo: Anita with J B

Anita Glaser, RN in the Emergency Dept. at Macomb Center, was nominated for a DAISY Award by SJMH volunteer J B. One afternoon when J B was volunteering in the ER, a young mother came in with her husband and her small child who was in a stroller. Her husband looked frail and spoke very little. The husband was taken into the Triage area, but the mother could not bring her child into the area where he was later placed. As the afternoon continued, J B noticed the wife’s concern as she waited with her child and more time passed. He felt very badly for the wife, who had no idea what her husband’s condition was. The child was acting up and she had to take the baby outside. After more time passed, she checked again at the ER window and was told that they still did not know what was wrong with her husband. As J B’s shift was about to end, he was very bothered that the wife hadn’t been able to see her husband to check on him. He went over to nurse Anita Glaser and explained the situation. Anita suggested that J B watch the child and she would take the wife back to see her husband. J B didn’t feel comfortable taking care of the baby so Anita came to the rescue and offered to watch the baby while he took the wife back to see her husband. He told the wife that he would take her back for just a few minutes because a nurse was going to watch her baby and had to get back to her other patients. The wife went in to see her husband for a few minutes, gave him a kiss and said she was going to take the baby to her mother’s house and would return. She couldn’t leave him until she knew he was going to be ok.

Early in the morning on a fall day, ER Nurse Manager Christina Liebzeit arranged for Anita to be surprised during their safety huddle so that all staff would be present. One of Anita’s co-workers commented, “There are hundreds of Anita stories like that. I’m so glad she was chosen!”