Mary Anne McConahy, LPN of the Butler VA Health Care System, Lawrence County Community Based Outpatient Clinic, was recently honored with The DAISY Award® For Extraordinary Nurses.
The DAISY Award® For Extraordinary Nurses
Butler, Pennsylvania — Mary Anne McConahy, LPN of the Butler VA Health Care System, Lawrence County Community Based Outpatient Clinic, was recently honored with The DAISY Award® For Extraordinary Nurses. The award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s programs to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day.
The nomination submitted read in part, “Mary Anne has taken my husband under her wing. She is kind and supportive…she always has a smile on her face at our appointments. At times, it isn’t easy to get my husband moving. One day, it was time for his shot, I was ill and could not drive to the clinic, and my husband cannot miss his shot…Mary Anne contacted his nurse and the social worker to have a nurse come to our home…She calls to check in on us. She sat and asked what I needed; she listened to me and how I felt isolated and told me there was nothing wrong with how I felt. Mary Anne is helping us get help in our home for my husband; I don’t know what we would do if she were not at the clinic. She even walks us to the car when it is bad out.”
The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.
Said Bonnie Barnes, FAAN, Doctor of Humane Letters (h.c) and Co-Founder of The DAISY Foundation, “When Patrick was critically ill, our family experienced first-hand the remarkable skill and care nurses provide patients every day and night. Yet these unsung heroes are seldom recognized for the super-human work they do. The kind of work the nurses at [hospital] are called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award.”
In addition to the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses, the Foundation expresses gratitude to the nursing profession internationally in over 5,500 healthcare facilities and schools of nursing with recognition of Nurse-led Teams, Nurse Leaders, Nurses Advancing Health Equity, Nursing Faculty, Nursing Students, Lifetime Achievement in Nursing and through the J. Patrick Barnes Grants for Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Projects, Medical Mission Grants and their new Health Equity Grant programs. More information is available at http://DAISYfoundation.org.
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