Between her ‘clinical’ care skills and her mentoring of other staff, Kelly Gardner is one of the strongest and kindest RNs I’ve ever worked around. She has been a preceptor for almost one-third of the existing ICRU staff, helping them to thrive in our department. She also performs calmly and thoughtfully in the Charge Nurse role.

I have received feedback from managers and leaders on no less than 4 different units and the Flow Supervisor about “How wonderful and easy it is to coordinate patient care, bed needs, and transfers with Kelly. Can you clone her?” Kelly is also a resource and mentor for RNs within the medical center. She has taught at the Peripheral IV Workshop and has had some inpatient unit RNs shadow with her in the ICRU to learn and practice their IV skills.

In addition, I have a long list of patient compliments/comments (sent from either Patient Relations or providers and going back to 2018) stating how exceptional and caring Kelly’s care was. Comments such as “kind and caring,” “excellent care,” “kept me calm and explained the procedure perfectly,” and others like this are in her unit personnel file. Kelly directly reflects the values within the DAISY Award by providing extraordinary, compassionate, and skillful nursing care every day.