Once a month Bayhealth honors a nurse for going above and beyond in the care of a patient with the DAISY Award, which is a national recognition that recognizes the unsung heroes of the nursing profession. The most recent recipient of this award is Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus Clinical Coordinator Staci Manning, BSN, RN, ONC.
Manning has worked at Bayhealth for 16 years, all of which have been on the Ortho/Neuro/Spine Unit. She began as a certified nursing assistant, and worked her way up to a clinical coordinator and relief house supervisor. She was nominated by a fellow nurse for ensuring a cancer patient could spend his final days with his other family – the staff on 4A, an acuity adaptable oncology unit. Manning helped get the patient transferred to 4A from another nursing unit. “Though we couldn’t change his outcome, we could help the family and patient cope with the inevitable,” the nominator wrote.
A normal day for Manning is spent on her home unit of 2B; however, she periodically helps as a relief house supervisor. Bayhealth’s house supervisors have their fingers on the pulse of patient care and help coordinate nursing services across the hospital. Manning was working as a relief house supervisor the day her nominator called asking for help. “The needs of the patients should always come first in my eyes,” Manning said. “The staff on the fourth floor had truly become part of this man’s family. Bayhealth makes patient-centered care a priority so it’s important to take the needs and the desires of patients into consideration.”
To those who know Manning, the lengths she went to make a patient happy and comfortable is par for the course. She loves her job, the people she works with – who are like family – and her patients. That desire to help people stems from her experiences as a child. Her entire family died in a house fire when she was six years old; Manning had only left the house a few minutes prior. Manning was then raised by her grandparents. She would later care for her grandfather when he fell ill while she was in nursing school. “The things that have happened to me in my life make me believe I’m here for a reason. I’m here to help people,” Manning said.
DAISY Award honorees are nominated by nurses, administrators, peers, physicians, volunteers, patients, and families. If you know a Bayhealth nurse who deserves to be nominated, visit Bayhealth.org/DAISY to fill out the nomination form.
