Reminding nursing students, even on their hardest days in school, why they chose the nursing profession

Why The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students Was Created

Nursing School is….challenging, overwhelming, and rewarding.  It requires excellent time management skills, sacrifice, and commitment. Students are acquiring skills that will impact the life and health of others; mastery is all you will accept. Nursing school is competitive.  The pressures associated with class load, clinicals, exams, and job availability can make it easy for students to lose sight of the art of caring while learning the science of nursing.

And yet they don't.  Students with a true calling to nursing never lose sight of the fact that they are treating a human being who needs all the sensitivity and compassion they can bring to them while they are at the height of emotion and most vulnerable.

The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students was created to recognize and celebrate nursing students for the above-and-beyond care and compassion shown to patients and their families.

What is The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students?

The DAISY Foundation, as part of its service to the nursing profession's role in patient care, established the this Student Award to provide colleges/schools of nursing a national recognition program that they may use to recognize and celebrate nursing students who demonstrate commitment to care and compassion and make the nurse-patient connection that makes such a difference in the healthcare experience.

The DAISY Foundation hopes that this program will inspire and motivate students to provide the best clinical skill possible and to impact patients and families with human spirit and kindness.

In creating The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students, there were four elements we wanted to ensure our recognition program included:

• A partnership with schools of nursing to provide ongoing recognition
• A program enabling all nursing students to have the opportunity to be recognized, with a selection process that is transparent, unbiased, and fair.
• Guided implementation and ongoing support where DAISY provides most of the materials for the program.
• Flexibility so that The DAISY Award may be tailored to each organization’s unique culture and values.

Presenting the Award:

DAISY presentations are meant to be joyful occasions. We propose that the presentation occurs in a location that allows recipients to be surrounded and celebrated by their peers and faculty. The recognition ceremony, coordinated by the DAISY Committee, can be a surprise for the recipient and often occurs at graduation, a pinning ceremony, in the classroom, or another public event.

The package for the DAISY Award for Nursing Students includes:

• Award certificate (this is a PowerPoint slide that will be emailed)
• DAISY Foundation portfolio for the award certificate
• DAISY Student Honoree Pin
• Healer's Touch sculpture

Planning and Implementing The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students Program

The first step is to fill out our request more information form. Your DAISY regional contact will email you a letter of introduction that provides details on who runs the program, how to plan and implement it at your school and cost. They will also be in touch to gauge interest and set up a phone conference or webinar to answer additional questions or provide additional information.

Should you decide to move forward, the next step is to fill out our online commitment form. This provides us with the main points of contact at your school, the frequency of awards, and the estimated start date.  Once we receive this form:

• We will email you the login and password to our online resource center, which contains an implementation guide, sample criteria, nomination form templates, marketing materials for your program, and much more.
• Your regional DAISY contact will be in touch to set up a date/time for a welcome webinar with your DAISY committee who will be coordinating the award program.
• An invoice for the first year of supplies will be emailed; once it’s paid, we will ship your supplies for the year.

 We look forward to working with you to honor your extraordinary nursing students!