I nominate Vierna because her knowledge, skills, and attitude are quite exceptional. She always adheres to the Trust’s Policies and its Core Values for the provision of safe patient care. She ensures that the quality of nursing care she renders to patients is of the optimum standard in accordance to the latest approved clinical evidence. She has admirable people skills. She leads our team as a role model promoting teamwork. She looks after her colleagues as well by making sure that everybody gets their allocated breaks, and she is always ready to help her colleagues out with any nursing tasks. She collaborates well with every healthcare worker in a timely manner for the benefit of patients under her care. She positively influenced any nursing students that she encounters and helps them find opportunities to learn. She supports/coaches not just the nursing students but her colleagues as well. She is affable but maintains professional boundaries. She is adaptable to any clinically stressful or emotionally charged situations. She is competent in demonstrating empathetic and therapeutic communication skills. She remains consistent in actively upholding high morale in workplace despite some setbacks due to current national nursing issues like staffing level and pay rise. I may say that she exudes professionalism, compassion, and dedication.

Vierna is a highly committed and well-motivated Nurse that should be recognised/commended for her constant positive contributions to the health service for she brings Honour to the Nursing Profession that reflects Pride to the Trust which shows Positive Impact to the Community/Public as she makes continuous endeavour in touching Peoples’ Lives through her unceasing and genuine act of kindness, and remarkable work ethics.

I will share a couple of the many compassionate cares she provided to patients that I observed. 

First Narrative:
The first one was a heart-warming moment that I witnessed pre-covid time when she was looking after an elderly male patient with blood cancer. It was Father’s Day and the patient was in a low mood because he was unwell with new diagnosis of cancer and admitted at the hospital. I vividly remember that she helped me and took part in providing personal cares to the patient. I saw how she gave positive reinforcement to the patient; she gave good encouragement and motivation to the patient, and then the patient participated eagerly in achieving his personal care. The patient chose to wear his heart-printed red/black pyjama and we helped him sit on his recliner chair. We both greeted the patient “Happy Father’s Day”. She answered all the patient’s questions in a way that he would understand. She showed empathy to the patient. I noticed that the patient had confidence and trust in her. She reassured the patient that the Team would be there for him every time he needed anything, be it assistance or inquiry. The family visited later that day and was elated that they saw the patient in good spirits and appeared lively. The family and the patient expressed their gratitude to the Team, especially to the staff who gave time and compassionate care to the patient on that day. 

Second narrative:
This second one is about an elderly female patient with blood cancer admitted from A&E and was sent to the Ward due to chest symptoms. There were some miscommunications between A&E Staff who looked after the patient as they missed to know that the patient got a fever, an indication that patient may be neutropenic. So Vierna was vigilant, upon knowing that the patient had a fever and was unwell, she immediately triggered the Neutropenic Sepsis Pathway that should have been started whilst the patient was in A&E. She summoned the Doctor on-call asap as every minute is crucial when dealing with neutropenia, especially to immunocompromised patients. The patient was very anxious and petrified at the time of admission (she was the widow of the patient from my first narrative) Vierna acknowledged the patient’s worries as she fully understood what the patient felt and have been through during her husband’s experience in the Ward. Vierna managed to calm the patient down and put her mind at ease through therapeutic communication, then explained to the patient every nursing intervention that needed doing. She ensured the patient was well informed about her treatment and other symptoms to report. She reassured the patient that help was readily available if needed and that patient would be checked regularly. Then, the patient became relaxed and halted from panicking. Vierna also spoke professionally to the A&E Staff involved with patient’s care to gather info re on delayed commencement of Neutropenic Sepsis Pathway and followed Trust’s protocol regarding this incident. In this scenario, Vierna provided another compassionate and safe nursing management.

These working experiences with Vierna showed me the importance of non-selective/non-discriminatory care in providing unconditional compassionate care because the elderly male patient was also under investigation for HIV at that time, the elderly female patient was familiar with the Ward because her husband (the elderly male patient with cancer from my first narrative) died in the Ward due to disease progression and both patients came from Black-British ethnicity background.

These scenarios humbly and justly represented that Vierna truly deserves to be the rightful recipient of the DAISY Award as she is consistently proficient in providing compassionate, safe, and effective care to all patients under her care regardless of patient’s characteristics and backgrounds as well as setting a good example to her colleagues and future nurses.