Carlos Santos, RN Honored with CVPH’s 1st DAISY Award

National DAISY Award Program honors extraordinary nurses

Carlos Santos, RN of the University of Vermont Health Network – Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital’s (CVPH) Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was honored with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses ® on Thursday, May 10.  Santos was the first licensed nurse at CVPH to receive the honor which is part of a nation-wide initiative to recognize and reward licensed nurses for making a meaningful difference in the lives of their patients.

CVPH launched the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses in early 2018. Patients, their families and coworkers are encouraged to nominate licensed nurses who have provided extraordinary care. Forms and boxes are located at each of the hospital’s main entrances and online at UVMHealth.org/CVPHDAISY  in the Patients & Visitors section. A committee reviews nominations and each quarter, awards the honor to a deserving nurse. 

“It is wonderful to honor Carlos Santos as the first Daisy Awardee in our organization.  He demonstrates humility and compassion in his work every day caring for his patients and families,” said CVPH Chief Nursing Officer Carrie Howard Canning.  Santos was nominated by the family of the late Denise L. Donah who passed away after a long and courageous battle with metastatic cancer.  “Carlos was more than just a nurse to our family,” Donah’s family wrote in their nomination.  “The care he provided professionally speaks wonders and you should be proud to have a nurse such as him at your facility.”  Santos cared for Donah while she was a patient in the ICU.  “There are things (during her stay) that Carlos did for us that made those trying times just a little more comforting, or more at ease.  Simple things, for example, like going out of his way to make sure that our family was comfortable in her room, or waiting rooms, as we took turns staying by her side.  He went out of his way to get us blankets, pillows, and even got one of our family members a cot so she could sleep in the room with our mother as she lay ill.”

The Donah family said it would forever be grateful for the above and beyond care and compassion Santos gave to them in their time of need and sorrow.

Howard-Canning added that the family’s letter eloquently put into words the impact nurses can have on patients and their families and thanked them for sharing their experience. 

The DAISY award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s mission to recognize the extraordinary, compassionate nursing care they provide patients and families every day.

The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, by members of his family.  Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. (DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.)  The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.

The CVPH DAISY Award ceremony was part of the hospital’s celebration of National Hospital Week.