I nominate Valerie Ibarra RN, as a deserving recipient of the DAISY Award. This in patient nurse exemplifies the kind of nurse that patients and families, as well as nurses, physicians and other members of the health care team recognize as an outstanding role model.

Being hospitalized can be a very frightening experience, especially if you are a child. Valerie Ibarra RN with her compassionate heart, has made it her personal mission to decorate the Pediatric unit to match all the holidays (Easter, Halloween, Christmas) as well as the seasons of the year. For the most part, she is the one who spends from her own packet to buy all the decorations even the singing and dancing dolls, lions, tigers and bears and other silly creatures that provide the much needed distraction that helps to decrease anxiety in our children.

There are many sights and sounds in the hospital that are very intimidating, but when you walk through our pediatric department those decorations always manage to bring smiles to our patients, families and to the staff here at South Bay Kaiser. Besides her interior hospital decorating skills, Valerie has a very simple but endearing and commanding way of engaging her patients and families. She is always up front and personal and puts her heart, soul and compassion into every patient she cares for. She is a definite favorite among all her patients and they ask for her again and again.

Thank you Valerie for bringing care and compassion to all your patients and for being the outstanding nurse you are.