DAISY Award

Christine Weiss, RN, BSN, CMSRN
Tower 6 Medical Surgical Unit

I would like to nominate Christine Weiss for her amazing work with a difficult patient/family situation. We recently had a liver failure patient admitted to the Medical-Surgical Unit who was impacted by the care she was provided.  She came back to visit the unit to tell us about her stay and how the compassionate care that was provided went above and beyond what she and her family felt they have ever received during the course of her disease process.  She remarked that her nurses, especially her primary nurse Christine Weiss showed extreme care and compassion in the following instances:

• Overbearing family - She recognized that her extended family can be extremely over-bearing, but we handled them respectfully and appropriately. The family and the patient never felt that Christine or the nurses were impatient with them or dismissive in the care.
• Reorientation when appropriate: She realized she was intermittently confused during her stay and she appreciated when Christine knew when to just go along with it, but recognized at times she needed to be corrected and/or re-oriented.  She never felt that we viewed her as crazy and that allowed her to not become scared during her times of confusion.
• She always felt we treated her as a priority despite how busy we were. We never seemed frustrated with her requests. We took the time to explain things to her and never appeared to be in a rush.
• Ensuring patient preferences are considered: She thought it was very nice that we kept her favorite flavor of popsicles for her stocked on the unit. There were even some ready for her when she was readmitted for her 2nd admission. She stated “It sometimes is the small things that mean a lot to a patient”.
• Patient’s husband said he considers the nurses more than her nurses, but also their friends.

Christine never asked to not have the patient as some of the other nurses requested a break from caring for her. She was always willing to take this patient and never asked for a break. Not only does the patient rave about the care that went above a beyond, the leadership on the unit saw the incredible care that Christine provided to the patient.

Nominator: Emily Torres