I would like to take this opportunity to nominate my nurse Jamie for the prestigious DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. To provide a bit of background, I am currently the Medical Director of the Froedtert Neurosciences Clinic and recently appointed Director of the Headache Medicine Program. I am in my sixth year as a faculty attending physician but have been at the institution since the start of my residency in neurology in 2010. I have worked with numerous nurses throughout my medical career in various settings including critical care units, inpatient units and several outpatient settings. In addition, my experience working with the nursing team extends back to my childhood years, going to work with my mom at the nursing home where she worked as a hairdresser. And this is where I would later work as a certified nursing assistant throughout my college years, working closely with the nursing staff. I feel that with these experiences I am able to confidently comment on what characteristics define an outstanding nurse – one who is undoubtedly deserving of the DAISY Award.

While I have worked with several amazing nurses throughout my career I can honestly say that Jamie stands out among them all. I have known Jamie since I was a neurology resident in the Neuro Critical Care Unit (NICU). As an intern in the NICU, you can imagine how stressful this can be for the physician in training. The pathology is challenging and a lot of the cases come with difficult last-minute decisions. And as a resident what made this experience less daunting was knowing that we have experienced nurses who could help guide us in taking care of these patients. In this setting, I would often look to Jamie for help but also to reassure me as a green intern that I was doing the right thing. Her positive attitude made for a much more enjoyable experience.

During this time I also witnessed just how special she was and what an impact she had on families at the bedside. In the NICU, you are often with families at the worst times of their lives. With Jamie’s calm demeanor and caring warmth, patients and their families always felt comforted and this made their time in the unit much less scary for them. Fast-forward to nearly 2 years ago, I was thrilled to find out that Jamie would be joining us as our new headache nurse. I must say that the outpatient neurological clinical setting comes with its own challenges as well, especially in the headache medicine world. Our patients suffer from hundreds of different types of headaches, most commonly migraine which is one of the most disabling conditions in the world. And these patients are suffering. They are in pain and dealing with a whole host of neurological symptoms and are often missing work, aren’t able to participate in social events, and are missing out on caring for their children or being present otherwise in family life. It truly takes a special person to understand and empathize with this patient population as often this condition is felt as though it’s “just in their heads”.

In my six years of doing headache medicine specifically, I have never had so many patients go out of their way to thank Jamie for the compassionate care she has provided. Jamie is a great listener and will always validate what patients are feeling – helping to combat the stigma associated with migraine. She is a strong advocate for our patients and she is always front and center, working with her physician colleagues to come up with the best care plan to get them feeling better. Jamie’s care for our patients goes beyond just providing medical care for their headaches. She has helped our patients who have other medical get the care that they need from other specialties. For example, she recently helped one of our patients get the needed home equipment for this patient’s disability which was unrelated to his headaches. She has even assisted a patient in filling out a job application as this patient’s disability made it impossible for him to fill out the online form! Simply put, Jamie goes above and beyond. I do feel I’m at a loss for words to really describe the type of nurse Jamie embodies. In fact, I wish those on the selection committee had the opportunity to witness her nursing in action per se as my words really don’t do it justice.

In summary, I really hope that I was able to convey just how extraordinary Jamie is and how much she is appreciated by me and the rest of our headache team. Jamie is a true DAISY Nurse.