Barton ICU nurse wins national award for exceptional care

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – On Wednesday, September 18, Angela Harvey, RN was honored by the DAISY Foundation™ and Barton Health with the international DAISY Award® for Extraordinary Nurses.

Angela, a nurse at Barton Memorial Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), is the first person to receive this award at Barton Health. The DAISY Award® recognizes the extraordinary, compassionate care that nurses provide patients and families every day. The award is one initiative of the DAISY Foundation™ to express gratitude to the nursing profession.

Angela was nominated for the DAISY Award® by the family of a patient admitted to the ICU. The patient had a long term illness and had been sick for many years. Though the family describes the patient’s passing as inevitable, they were impressed by how Angela took care of their loved one and the rest of their family.

One family member described Angela as “kind, respectful, loving, and devoted to a bunch of strangers.” She said Angela “brought us solace in moments of deepest despair” and that “she [Angela] is the example of what an extraordinary nurse is.”

Another family member said Angela went “above and beyond her duties as a nurse.” She was “extremely professional,” “provided us with great comfort,” and “offered her shoulder to cry on.”

Angela has always been passionate about caring for others. In middle school, she volunteered at her grandmother’s long term care facility and shadowed a surgeon to gain more insight into clinical care. When she became a mother, she says she knew she wanted to be a nurse.

Angela was a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) for five years and has been a Registered Nurse (RN) for two years. She says her favorite part about being a nurse is seeing the difference her care can make in others’ lives.

“I love hearing patients’ stories and caring for them,” Angela says. “There is always something new to learn and I enjoy the lifelong learning aspect of the profession.”

“Angela Harvey puts her skills and her heart into her work, and is well-deserving of the DAISY Award®,” says Julie Clayton, RN, MSN, the Chief Nursing Officer at Barton Health. “Our nurses are highly valued and heroes in our community. The DAISY Award® is one way for us to honor that.”

To receive a DAISY Award® at Barton Health, nurses are nominated by patients and patient families. Nominations are reviewed and award recipients are selected by a committee. Each DAISY Award® recipient is honored as an “Extraordinary Nurse” and receives a certificate, DAISY Award® pin, and A Healer’s Touch, a hand-carved sculpture made by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe.