Congratulations Kristin Bauer, Tanya Robinson, Sanela Smajic and Melissa Concepcion on winning DAISY and Sunflower awards!

DAISY awards are given semi-annually to an inpatient and an outpatient nurse who are nominated by patients and their caregivers based on a defined set of criteria.

More than 3,300 health care organizations in all 50 states and in 18 countries have recognized their nurses with DAISY awards since 1999.

The DAISY Foundation was established by a family of a patient who passed away from an autoimmune disease. During his time in the hospital, he received exceptional care from his nurses and the family decided to give back by creating the DAISY award to recognize the extraordinary care of nurses. They chose to call it DAISY because it is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system.

Over the years, many medical assistants and oncology techs have been nominated for the DAISY award but the award was only given to nurses. However, in the fall of 2017, Moffitt’s Professional Growth and Advancement Committee was given approval to initiate the Sunflower award. The Sunflower award allows patients and their caregivers to nominate medical assistants and oncology techs that they feel:

• Go above and beyond in their duties
• Are compassionate and caring
• Kind and sincere
• Energetic and enthusiastic
• Work well with other health care team members to improve the patient experience

The next DAISY and Sunflower award winners will be announced in about six months.