We are pleased to announce the most recent UAB Medicine DAISY Award, recognizing the extraordinary care and compassion that nurses provide for patients and families every day. Submissions and stories are reviewed each month, and the winner is surprised at a special ceremony. You can submit a DAISY nurse nomination using this online form.
Click here to view more photos from the award presentation.
Congratulations to the most recent winner, Jaxon Walton, RN. Below, a colleague explains what makes Jaxon worthy of a DAISY Award.
“Jaxon works as a stepdown nurse as part of the Float Pool at UAB Hospital and is appreciated everywhere he goes. For our unit specifically needing nurses that are ventilator trained, he is a godsend. He shows up to our unit with a smile and ready to be a part of this team. If you were on the outside looking in, you would think he was just a part of our core team because of how he adapts to our unit and patient population.
Currently, we have a long-term patient who has been with us for a while. This patient was critically ill when they arrived at UAB and did not have an immediately good prognosis. To say they are an interdisciplinary success is the understatement of the century. This patient has spent the last few years of their life bedbound. We rarely see visitors, so we are their entire support system and have been overjoyed to watch them wean off the ventilator and get out of the bed for the first time in years. Their progress has been hard fought and hard won.
The one lifeline and connection this patient has to the outside world is their tablet. They are immersed in video games and anime. Our staff have jumped into this interest with them – it has brought the patient out of their shell and beginning to want to be present and alive again. Twice in eight months, we have required extra help caring for this patient when they could not see a way out. To say the patient’s tablet keeps them engaged would be grossly underestimating it.
Recently, the patient’s tablet was accidentally knocked off their bedside table, which broke the tablet. This incident occurred over the weekend, so a plan was developed with unit leadership to replace it Monday morning. However, that was not soon enough for Jaxon. He recognizes more than just a patient; he sees the person. Every single one of his patients benefit from this perspective. It isn’t the first time Jaxon has gone above and beyond to provide for a patient or their family member. After Jaxon completed his night shift, he went to the store and purchased a new tablet with his own money to bring back to the patient the next night. Jaxon has since refused for anyone to give him money to help with the purchase and only worried that if we didn’t get a longer charging cable it may happen again.
Jaxon is a phenomenal clinician. He sees the pain and the struggle of his patients through more than just a nursing lens and we are all better for it. What he brings to his patients and their families is comfort beyond medicine. What he brings to the teams he is working with is peace. We know that when Jaxon is here, everyone around him will be supported. He is a gem and truly deserves to be recognized for this act of generosity for his patient and what I know is not the first or last time that he will go above and beyond.”