News for Immediate Release

Extraordinary Nurses To Be Recognized at Florida Hospital Waterman

Tavares, FL: Nurses at Florida Hospital Waterman will be honored with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, November 8, 2011. The award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s program to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day. The key note speaker at the ceremony will be Senator Alan Hays.

The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, CA, and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Patrick died in 1999 at the age of 33 from complications of an 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.

The guest speaker at the ceremony on November 8 will be Elizabeth Warren, the daughter of a former Florida Hospital Waterman patient who died from complications of the same disease that is at the root of the DAISY award. She will speak about her mother, and the compassion that she was shown while being cared for at Florida Hospital Waterman.

A nurse is selected by Florida Hospital Waterman’s nursing administration once every three months. The honoree receives a certificate commending him or her for being an “Extraordinary Nurse,” as well as a beautiful and meaningful sculpture called “A Healer’s Touch,” hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Africa.

“We are proud to be among the hospitals participating in the DAISY Award program,” said Patricia Dolan, Chief Nursing Officer. “Nurses are heroes every day. Given the current national nursing shortage, the DAISY Award could not be launched at a better time. It’s important that our nurses know their work is highly valued, and The DAISY Foundation provides a way for us to do that.”

For a complete listing of hospitals currently participating in the DAISY program, go to www. DAISYfoundation.org.

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