Awards, Big Rapids Hospital

DAISY Award Recognizes Compassionate Care

Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital emergency department nurse honored.

Shelly May, center, received a DAISY Award for compassionate care.

BIG RAPIDS, Mich., October 15, 2020 – Shelly May, Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital emergency department nurse, didn’t give up on a patient who arrived with a life and death health crisis recently.

May was recognized with a DAISY Award for her compassionate care after being nominated by the patient who suffered a pulmonary embolism and was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

“The first person I recall seeing was Shelly,” the nomination read. “She took her hands and put them around my face and said, ‘we will take good care of you my friend,’ and she did!”

The patient received CPR for more than an hour.

“The doctor kept coming out to my family asking if they wanted to let me go,” the patient said. “I don’t remember too much about what happened, but what I do remember is that Shelly never gave up on me! I will never forget her calm, kind words and all she did that day. My life was saved due to the efforts of that team and she was a big part of that!”

Caroline Ring, chief nursing officer at Spectrum Health Big Rapids and Reed City Hospitals, presented May with flowers, a certificate, and a DAISY statue at a ceremony Tuesday.

“Shelly is really awesome at her job,” Ring said. “This is just one great example of the great care you give every single day, and patients feel it,” Ring told May. “Thank you so much.”

The DAISY Award is presented quarterly to recognize excellent performance and is given based on nominations from patients, community members and colleagues.

The awards program was adopted from The DAISY Award, an international program established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. The Barnes family was deeply appreciative of the clinical skills, caring and compassion of the nurses who cared for Patrick, so they created an award to say thank you to nurses everywhere.

Big Rapids and Reed City Hospitals have expanded the recognition program to include the BEE award open to all clinical and non-clinical employees, in addition to nurses.

Nominations are open for any Spectrum Health employee who regularly goes above and beyond in creating a meaningful experience for patients.

Nomination forms can be found at any Spectrum Health facility in Mecosta and Osceola counties or submitted online at: onlineregistrationcenter.com/BRRCDaisyBee.

 

Spectrum Health System, a not-for-profit, integrated health system, is committed to improving the health and wellness of our communities. We live our mission every day with 31,000 compassionate professionals, 4,600 medical staff experts, 3,300 committed volunteers and a health plan serving 1 million members. Our talented physicians and caregivers are privileged to offer a full continuum of care and wellness services to our communities through 14 hospitals, including Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, 150 ambulatory sites and telehealth offerings. We pursue health care solutions for today and tomorrow that diversify our offerings. Locally-governed and based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, our health system provided $585 million in community benefit in fiscal year 2019. Thanks to the generosity of our communities, we received $30 million in philanthropy in the most recent fiscal year to support research, academics, innovation and clinical care. Spectrum Health has been recognized as one of the nation’s 15 Top Health Systems by Truven Health Analytics®, part of IBM Watson HealthTM.

 

Contact:
John Norton
Corporate Communications Manager
Office: 231.592.4387
Mobile: 231.580.1079
Email: john.norton@corewellhealth.org