DAISY Award to extraordinary nurse Sarah Murphy

Sarah Murphy, RN, a nurse on Beebe Healthcare’s Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, has been honored with this quarter’s DAISY Award.

The award is a part of the DAISY Foundation’s national program to recognize the superhuman efforts nurses make every day.

Murphy received the DAISY Award because of the care and support she provided the wife of a patient.

The patient, while otherwise healthy, developed an infection that led to severe swelling, requiring an emergency tracheotomy. While his wife was waiting for him to come out of surgery, she saw Murphy walking out of the operating room area and called out to her. The two are classmates in Wilmington University’s Family Nurse Practitioner program.

“When she saw me and put two and two together, you could see her heart immediately breaking. I was alone at the hospital that night because my mother-in-law couldn’t be there as she was watching my 3-year-old son,” the patient’s wife wrote.

“Although she was not assigned to his case, she checked in on me and my husband as we awaited transport, gave me lots of hugs, words of encouragement, went down to the cafeteria and bought me food and drinks since I hadn’t eaten all day, and even insisted on giving me toll money so that I did not have to stop on my way up to Christiana, where my husband was transferred.” 

“I have no doubt that she provides this same loving, thoughtful care to all of her patients. I truly do not believe I could have made it through that night without her support. I will never, ever forget the love and support she gave me on one of the worst nights of my life, and I will be grateful for that forever.”
Murphy was presented with a DAISY Award certificate and a hand-carved Healer’s Touch sculpture during a recent surprise, socially distant ceremony. Each DAISY honoree receives the statue and the certificate, which commends the honoree for being an  extraordinary nurse. It reads: “In deep appreciation of all you do, who you are, and the incredibly meaningful difference you make in the lives of so many people.”

The nonprofit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, Calif. It was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, who died at age 33 in 1999 from complications of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, a little-known but not uncommon autoimmune disease. 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.

To nominate a Beebe nurse for the DAISY Award, go to www.beebehealthcare.org/forms/daisy-award.