Anderson Honors Nurse with DAISY Award

Written by Laura Hyche

Scottish minister and scholar Robert Leighton wrote, “The flower that follows the sun does so even on cloudy days.” Filling one of the most vital roles in the health care system, nurses are often unsung heroes, the flower on that cloudy day for a COVID-19 patient.

Anderson Regional Health System celebrated one such hero on Tuesday, when it presented Melissa Wright with The DAISY Award. DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune SYstem.

The DAISY Foundation was formed in 1999 by the family of Patrick Barnes as a way to honor the nurses who provided quality and compassionate care to Patrick during the final stages of his battle with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). This award recognizes a remarkable individual who consistently demonstrates excellence in his or her work. The Barnes family acknowledges the super-human work nurses do for their patients and their families every day.

Wright has been a critical care nurse with Anderson for 15 years; she has been caring for COVID-19 patients in the CCU since the pandemic began.

A resident of York, Alabama, Wright said she is humbled by this tribute, but more importantly, she said it is an honor for which she was nominated by one of her patients.

“This nomination was especially meaningful to me," Wright said. "He was in the hospital for a little over a month, but he was on a ventilator for three weeks of that time. He recovered, so he is one of our success stories.”

Day in, day out, nurses who care for COVID-19 patients become the primary communicator between patients and their family members. 

“We are so close with these patients; they become just as important as our family members," Wright said. "That’s what makes our care for them so special and important.”