To all of us at The DAISY Foundation, we think every year is the Year of the Nurse. But we were thrilled when the WHO and International Council of Nursing named 2020 – the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth – the Year of the Nurse and Midwife.
This is the perfect opportunity to share your DAISY nomination stories with your community and to celebrate your Nurses in a big way!
- Invite your local media to attend a DAISY celebration or a gathering of your past DAISY Honorees. Here are a few examples from some of our partners:
- Unveil a Wall of Honor to showcase your DAISY Honorees! See examples here or check our Pinterest page.
- Create a Compassion Campaign to share with your community. The University of Wisconsin Health System does a tremendous job sharing their DAISY stories via their Remarkable Medicine Remarkable Care campaign. Here is one video and you can check others on our YouTube Channel.
- Dedicate a large Healers Touch Sculpture. Many facilities will purchase a large sculpture to place in a prominent area of the facility or in a healing garden. Click here to see some of the large healer displays that are currently in place.
Additionally, another initiative underway for 2020 Year of the Nurse & Midwife is the Nightingale Challenge. The Nightingale Challenge asks every employer of nurses and midwives to identify at least 20 nurses for special leadership development. Each participating organization will determine how best to create opportunities for them to learn about leadership, not only clinical but also in the wider organization and for personal development. Examples of programs could include any mix of formal course, mentoring, shadowing or learning from other professionals.
The goal is to have 1,000 healthcare organizations participate, benefiting 20,000 nurses at least.
We hope you will consider joining this global initiative. Your DAISY Honorees may be an excellent cohort from which to choose Nightingale Challenge participants because we know that they are already leaders at the bedside/chairside. Additionally, at the end of your Nightingale Challenge program, please think about presenting a DAISY Nurse Leader Award to a nurse who demonstrated outstanding leadership during this process.
"The Nightingale Challenge is an opportunity for all participating organizations to be part of a great global movement to develop nursing and midwifery," said Lord Nigel Crisp, Co-Chair of the Nursing Now! campaign. "By accepting the Nightingale Challenge, you are demonstrating your commitment to investing and championing nursing and midwifery at a time when the two professions will be enjoying global attention throughout the Year of the Nurse and Midwife."
We look forward to seeing this initiative as well as the DAISY program ideas mentioned above come to life in our DAISY community!