Garnet Health Medical Center - Catskills Honors Exceptional Nurse

Garnet Health Medical Center-Catskills has partnered with the DAISY Foundation to recognize its nurses for the excellent care they provide to patients. Intensive Care Unit Registered Nurse Karen Franza, was chosen as the first honoree. Ms. Franza was honored for her compassionate care of our COVID-19 patients. Her nomination illustrated the above and beyond steps she took to help a patient and their family connect in the last moments of life taken by the pandemic.  

“Ms. Franza is an exceptional nurse,” says Chief Nursing Officer Suzanne Lange Ahmed. “It is important for all our nurses to know their work is highly valued, and the DAISY Foundation provides a very special way for us to do that.”

The Garnet Health Medical Center – Catskills Shared Governance Professional Nursing Excellence and Education Committee, led by Registered Nurse Diana Duffy, worked hard to implement the DAISY Award at the Hospital. Comprised of frontline staff and leader advisors, the goal of the various Nursing Shared Governance Committees is to enhance nursing practice and promote direct care nursing involvement in shared decision making. 

The DAISY Foundation, an international organization established to recognize and honor nurses who make a profound difference in the lives of the patients they care for, created The DAISY Award For Extraordinary Nurses in honor of J. Patrick Barnes who died at age 33 from an auto-immune disease. His family was extremely grateful for the nursing care he received that they started a Foundation in his honor. For the past 15 years, hospitals across the nation have partnered with The DIASY Foundation to honor their nurses that go above and beyond.   

"When Patrick was critically ill, our family experienced first-hand the remarkable skill and care nurses provide patients every day and night. Yet these unsung heroes are seldom recognized for the super-human work they do. The kind of work the nurses at Garnet Health Medical Center-Catskills are called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award.” said Bonnie Barnes, FAAN, CEO and Co-Founder of The DAISY Foundation.

For more information on careers at Garnet Health Medical Center – Catskills visit www.garnethealth.org/careers

About the DAISY Foundation

The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, CA, and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. 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. 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.
One day while Pat was in the hospital, he asked his family to bring him a Cinnabon® cinnamon roll plus enough for all the nurses in his unit.  With the help of Cinnabon’s parent company, FOCUS Brands, The DAISY Foundation carries on this tradition by serving Cinnabons to all the nurses in the Award recipient’s unit in thanks for everything they do for their patients and families. Honorees also receive a certificate of commemoration, a hand carved sculpture called A Healer’s Touch