Baptist Golden Triangle, DeSoto award extraordinary nurses

Baptist Golden Triangle and Baptist DeSoto recently honored two nurses with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses, which is given in appreciation of the work nurses do.

Baptist Golden Triangle education department registered nurse Eljenette (LJ) West, was nominated by a fellow employee on behalf of a former heart surgery and cardiac rehab patient. LJ cared for the patient when she worked in the critical care unit.

“If LJ is not the overall winner of the DAISY Award, I would just like for her to know of the joy she brings to the patients that she encounters and to her fellow co-workers,” her nominator wrote.

The mother of a Baptist DeSoto pediatric patient nominated Mamie Taylor, a registered nurse in surgical services, for the way she treated her daughter just before surgery.

“Mamie gave her love and showed great caring,” Taylor’s nominator wrote. “She really helped a lot by taking time and talking to her like a child. She is awesome and a true caregiver.”

Baptist hospitals accept nominations and select nurses to receive the DAISY Award, created in 2000 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes. Barnes died at age 33 of complications from an auto-immune disease. The care Barnes and his family received from nurses while he was ill led to the creation of the DAISY Award.