The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses
The DAISY Award is an international program that rewards and celebrates the extraordinary compassionate and skillful care given by nurses every day.
Northwestern Medicine is proud to be a DAISY Award partner, recognizing nurses with this special honor.
About The DAISY Foundation
The DAISY Foundation was established in 1999 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes who died of complications of the auto-immune disease Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) at the age of 33. (DAISY is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system.) During Pat’s eight-week hospitalization, his family was awestruck by the care and compassion his nurses provided not only to Pat but to everyone in his family. So one of the goals they set in creating a Foundation in Pat’s memory was to recognize extraordinary nurses everywhere who make an enormous difference in the lives of so many people by the super-human work they do every day.
The DAISY Award
Each DAISY Award Honoree will be recognized at a public ceremony in her/his unit and will receive a beautiful certificate, a DAISY Award pin, and a handcarved stone sculpture entitled A Healer’s Touch.
Additionally, everyone in the unit will celebrate with cinnamon rolls – a favorite of Patrick’s during his illness. The Barnes Family asks that whenever and wherever nurses smell that wonderful cinnamon aroma, they stop for a moment and think about how special they are.
How to Nominate an Extraordinary Nurse
Patients, visitors, nurses, physicians and employees may nominate a deserving nurse by completing the corresponding hospital's online form below.
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Lake Forest Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Central DuPage Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Delnor Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Kishwaukee Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Valley West Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Huntley Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at McHenry Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Woodstock Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Palos Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital
- Click here to nominate a nurse at Northwestern Medical Group
Related Resources
DAISYfoundation.org - find out more about the program, including the growing list of partners.