Stamps receives DAISY award from Merit Health

Published 6:54 pm Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Robyn Stamps is special.

A nurse for three years, she is the weekend nurse on Merit Health River Regions’ fifth floor, an area known as “med surge,” where, as she put it, “we see everything.” It’s an area of the hospital where Stamps has a lot of interaction with patients, and it was her interaction with one patient that has made her special as the medical center’s first DAISY Award winner.

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“I’m very humbled to get this award,” Stamps said.

Stamps was selected from 21 other nurses at Merit Health, all of whom were nominated by patients, and each received a DAISY pin indicating their recognition. Besides receiving a pin, Stamps received a certificate and a copy of the statue “A Healer’s Touch,” which was carved from stone in Zimbabwe.

“This nurse is amazing inside and out,” wrote the patient nominating Stamps. “She is one of the most compassionate yet loving nurses I have ever met. She is calming and assures them that they are with them through their difficult times being an in-patient. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know how things would have turned out. She does more than just take care of her patients.”

Known by its full name, The DAISY Award For Extraordinary Nurses, it is aimed at honoring nurses for their skill and compassion when dealing with patients and their families and helping nurses see in themselves what their patients, families and colleagues see in them.

The award was developed by the family of Patrick Barnes, who contracted and died from the auto-immune disease, Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, or ITP. His family was impressed by the skill, caring and compassion his nurses gave him that they founded the DAISY Foundation and the award. DAISY stands for “diseases attacking the immune system.”

About John Surratt

John Surratt is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a degree in general studies. He has worked as an editor, reporter and photographer for newspapers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post staff since 2011 and covers city government. He and his wife attend St. Paul Catholic Church and he is a member of the Port City Kiwanis Club.

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