DAISY Award

Josh Spangler, RN, CCRN
Tower 7 MSICU Gold

I have had the pleasure of working with Josh for 12 years and he is always helpful and maintains a positive outlook for his patients, bringing the human caring to the bedside amongst the bells and whistles of the ICU.

Josh was caring for one of our pediatric patients for an extended period of time. This ten year old child was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. To help improve compliance and breakup the monotony of frequent respiratory treatments Josh had the idea to make a "marshmallow blow-gun." This was in short, PVC plastic pipe with screws drilled in the end to prevent inhaling the marshmallow. He decorated he device with camouflaged duct tape. Josh made two "blow-guns", one for his patient and one for the patient’s father. Together the patient and his dad would have marshmallow fights, blowing marshmallows through the devices at each other. Josh also lined up pencils as targets for the patient to aim at, making a game out of his respiratory exercise. This would ultimately provide the pulmonary exercise needed by the patient to expand his lungs in a creative fun way .The laughter coming from the patients room filled the ICU, something that doesn't happen very often. It brought a smile to everyone's faces and improved the treatment and spirit of Josh's young patient.

Nominator: Sally Easley