Medical-surgical nurses earn national recognition with PRISM Award

UC Davis Medical Center leads in number of awards in California and west of the Mississippi River

(SACRAMENTO)

The Accelerated Access Unit of UC Davis Medical Center received the AMSN PRISM Award®, a national medical-surgical (med-surg) award recognizing the collective achievements and contributions of the nursing staff of the unit.

Nurse Manager Darrell Desmond, third from left, and Accelerated Access Unit members celebrate their PRISM Award.
Nurse Manager Darrell Desmond, third from left, and Accelerated Access Unit members celebrate their PRISM Award.

Med-surg nurses care for patients who are either preparing for or recovering from a surgery.

The award, which stands for Premier Recognition in the Specialty of Med-Surg, is the first of its kind honoring med-surg nursing units in the United States and internationally. It is co-sponsored by the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) and the Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification Board (MSNCB). The award is given to outstanding acute care/med-surg units or adult/pediatric units classified as med-surg.

Officials representing the AMSN and MSNCB presented the Accelerated Access team with the award during a virtual ceremony Sept. 8. They applauded those gathered with exemplifying the qualities that define excellence in medical-surgical nursing and praised their journey to optimal outcomes and exceptional patient care.

“I am more than proud of our PRISM designation,” said Darrell Desmond, nurse manager for the team known as Unit 4. “For us to maintain that level of expert holistic care over such a challenging time with COVID-19 is amazing and should be celebrated.”

Accelerated Access is a 34-bed adult med-surg unit. Patients are a combination of short stays and admissions from the Emergency Department (ED) and clinics. Many patients come to the unit to await placement in a specialty unit such as Oncology. Because of its purpose and unit structure, patient turnover is very high, resulting in an extremely well-coordinated team of professional nurses. 

“You and your team were the first hospital in California to receive a PRISM Award. You are still the number one hospital in California with six awards. And you are the only facility west of the Mississippi with six or more. Y’all are rocking it!”

— Wes Foster
PRISM Award presenter

The team achieved advanced scores in Leadership, Recruitment and Retention, and Lifelong Learning. They earned a near-perfect score for Patient Outcomes and a perfect score for the Healthy Practice Environment category.

“I congratulate the entire team for their work — day in and day out — to create an environment that benefits both patients and staff,” added Toby Marsh, chief nursing and patient care services officer for UC Davis Medical Center. “I’m grateful for their commitment to staff recognition and community projects as well as daily huddles and behavioral health planning to improve patient care and illustrate how UC Davis Health is improving lives and transforming health care.”

Wes Foster, president-elect of the MSNCB Board of Directors, jokingly mentioned Marsh’s competitive streak when presenting the award.

“Toby, you and your team were the first hospital in California to receive a PRISM Award. You are still the number one hospital in California with six awards. And you are the only facility west of the Mississippi with six or more,” Foster said. “Y’all are rocking it!”

More than 600,000 medical-surgical nurses practice in the U.S. today, making them the single largest group of specialty nurses working in hospital settings, according to AMSN. Med-surg nurses oversee a broad spectrum of patient care responsibilities, another reason the acronym PRISM was chosen for the award.