In a surprise ceremony that included her parents—who flew in from Massachusetts—Meghan Middleton, CPNP-PC/AC, CNS, was presented the DAISY Award at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Middleton’s co-workers from the Comfort, Pain and Palliative Care Program originally gathered with her to “discuss” organizing their work as blue and white chip items when her parents walked into the meeting room, along with her husband, Michael.
“Blue chips, white chips, I was wondering what was going on, and then I saw them come in the room,” Middleton said. “I thought to myself, I know they are my blue chips but what are they doing here?”
Middleton arrived at Children’s Hospital in 2007, with a strong background in pain management and palliative care from her previous career at Yale University. Since then, she has helped grow the Comfort, Pain and Palliative Care Program at the hospital, working to help create a monthly educational series on end of life care and family support and helping to recruit palliative care team members.
With a calm demeanor and the ability to soothe a scared children, Middleton not only comforts the patients and families she works with but also is a strong role model for nurses in the Versant RN Residency Program.
“To me, Meghan is a trusted colleague and friend,” said Debbie Jury, RN, CPNP-PC/AC, CNS, reading from Middleton’s nomination form. “We have worked in harmony to develop pain management protocols and standards of care that ensure that evidence-based pain management practices are being followed throughout the Children’s Hospital campus. It’s amazing to me how well we complement and build upon each other when it comes to developing new research ideas, writing for publication or just problem-solving.
“In eastern medicine they say there is a Yin for every Yang,” Jury continued, “these are not opposing forces but rather complementary opposites that work within a greater whole as part of a dynamic system. As nurse practitioners we’ve got this Yin-Yang working relationship … hands down.”