July and August 2023 DAISY® and BEE Award Recipients
Published on: February 2, 2024
Watertown, NY – Samaritan Medical Center is pleased to announce its DAISY and BEE Award recipients for July and August 2023. The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses® recognizes exemplary nursing staff, and the BEE Award honors other outstanding staff members who support patient care, at the hospital and all outpatient clinics.
Tracy Pollic, Registered Nurse (RN), Samaritan Medical Center, received the DAISY Award for July. Dylan Woodward, safety aide, inpatient mental health unit at Samaritan Medical Center, received the BEE Award for July. Nakia Woodard, Licensed Practical Nurse, inpatient mental health unit at Samaritan Medical Center, received the DAISY Award for August. Garrett Hayes, applications manager with information service at Samaritan Medical Center, received the BEE award for August.
An excerpt from Pollic’s July DAISY award nomination, read:
“We had a patient on the unit who suddenly wasn’t doing well. The choice was made to make this patient comfort measures only. Tracy honored the patient’s last wishes. It was a lot of work in a small amount of time that made a world of difference.”
An excerpt from Woodard’s August DAISY award nomination, read:
“Nakia treats the patients no different than she would her own family. She goes above and beyond to make sure her patients, as well as other patients, are cared for.”
For receiving the DAISY Award – which is an international award backed by The DAISY Foundation – Pollic and Woodard were presented with certificates commending them as extraordinary nurses, DAISY Award pins, and symbolic sculptures called “A Healer’s Touch,” which is hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe. A larger version of this sculpture has also been installed in the Healing Gardens at Samaritan Medical Center in honor of all DAISY and BEE Award winners to come. It was purchased using funds donated by the Samaritan Auxiliary.
An excerpt from Woodward’s July BEE award, read:
“Mental health can be a challenging and taxing field to work in, but Dylan treats the patients with dignity and respect: I have seen him take the time to relate to and exceptionally de-escalate situations. He prioritizes safety and will instinctively increase rounding or monitoring if a situation warrants it: and he is often even ahead of the nursing staff on thinking of ways to help a patient or make the unit safer.”
An excerpt from Hayes’ August BEE award, read:
“Garett consistently helps whoever needs it. Many times, he has dropped what he was working on to help a coworker even fixing a printer issue. His attitude is his greatest asset. Always pleasant and willing to do what needs to be done whether it is in his wheelhouse or not. One morning, he helped empty the garbage because the housekeeping staff was down. Shortly after, he was resolving a computer issue that was slowing down processing patient accounts in the ED. He is truly an asset for Samaritan and makes a difference every day.”
Woodward and Hayes were presented with certificates, BEE Award pins, and gift bags with other tokens of gratitude.
Both awards will continue to be presented throughout the year, and patients, families, or colleagues can submit nominations at any time. To nominate or learn more about the Samaritan DAISY and BEE Awards, visit www.samaritanhealth.com/daisy-bee.
About Samaritan Medical Center
Samaritan Medical Center (Watertown, New York) is a 290-bed not-for-profit community medical center, offering a full spectrum of inpatient and outpatient healthcare services. From primary and emergency care to highly specialized medical and surgical services, such as cancer treatment, neonatal intensive care, behavioral health and addiction services, and imaging services, Samaritan Medical Center and its team of healthcare professionals proudly serves the medical needs of our civilian and military community. Quality, compassion, and safety are the basic principles by which exceptional care is delivered at Samaritan.
About The DAISY Foundation
The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, by members of his family. 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. (DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.) 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. In addition to the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses, the Foundation expresses gratitude to the nursing profession internationally in over 3,900 healthcare facilities and schools of nursing with recognition of direct care Nurses, Nurse-led Teams, Nurse Leaders, Nursing Faculty, Nursing Students, through the J. Patrick Barnes Grants for Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Projects and for nurses participating in medical missions. More information is available at http://www.DAISYfoundation.org.