October 2024 DAISY®, and BEE Award Recipients
Published on: December 18, 2024
Watertown, NY – Samaritan Medical Center is pleased to announce its DAISY, and BEE Award recipients for October 2024. The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses® recognizes exemplary nursing staff, and the BEE Award honors other outstanding staff members for being excellent every day, both at the hospital and outpatient clinics.
Kristin Navarra, a Registered Nurse (RN) and critical care clinical nurse educator of Samaritan Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit, received the DAISY Award. Bobbie McKnight a Nursing Assistant (NA) of Samaritan Medical Center’s Four Pavilion Unit, received the BEE Award.
Samaritan Medical Center’s Manager of Education Development Emily Soderquist nominated Navarra for the DAISY Award saying:
“I am consistently impressed with her organization, empathetic nature, and most obvious- compassion that she has for the nursing field. She is a realist; she knows what the nursing team needs and anticipates their challenges and helps her team prepare for them. She is an empath, understanding the challenges of everyday life as a nurse, and helps her team to make the time to learn new things that will improve their knowledge of patient care. She is a teammate, always looking out for the other educators, thinking of ways to help all – not only those that she works directly with. She is a learner, not only can she share her knowledge better than most people I know, but she is also always striving to learn as well.”
For receiving the DAISY Award – which is an international award backed by The DAISY Foundation – Navarra was presented with a certificate commending her as an extraordinary nurse, a DAISY Award pin, and a symbolic sculpture 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.
McKnight was nominated for the BEE Award by Joyce James, a Registered Nurse (RN) on Samaritan’s Four Pavilion Unit, saying:
“One of Bobbie’s greatest strengths is how she manages our behavioral patients waiting for placement. She is frequently able to get them to participate in personal care and calm them down when nobody else can. She treats this patient population with the utmost dignity and respect as she would one of her own family members. She gains trust with our patients and makes them feel safe.”
McKnight was presented with a certificate, a BEE Award pin, and a gift bag with other tokens of gratitude.
These awards will continue to be presented throughout the year, and nominations can be submitted by patients, families, or colleagues at any time. To make a nomination or to learn more about the Samaritan DAISY, and BEE Awards, visit www.samaritanhealth.com/daisy-bee.
Pictured here, from left to right, are October 2024 awardees Kristin Navarra, RN, critical care clinical nurse educator, and Bobbie McKnight, NA, Samaritan Medical Center’s Four Pavilion Unit.
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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.