Holy Family Memorial (HFM) is pleased to award Tamra Koehler, RN, as the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurse winner, and Judy Check, RN, as the DAISY Nurse Leader Award winner, for May 2021. The DAISY Award is a recognition program for extraordinary nurses.
Koehler has been employed by HFM for six years and works in the Critical Care Unit at the HFM Medical Center. A patient’s daughter nominated Koehler for the DAISY Award and wrote about her experience with Tamra while her father was a patient in the CCU.
The daughter wrote, “Tamra never made me feel like I was a bother or that I was in the way. She answered every question I had with kindness, compassion, thoughtfulness, and concern. Even when I was just in looking at my dad not knowing what his outcome would be, her presence was enough to put some of my nervousness at ease due to so many unknowns with his status. For the first time in the past few years, I felt like I could be his daughter and not have to advocate and push for someone to really care for him. He was treated with absolute respect by the entire staff.”
Check has led the Employee Health Services department at HFM for the past 10 years. Her role on HFM’s incident command team has been instrumental in ensuring the health and safety of our employees since the COVID-19 pandemic started over a year ago. Check’s leader nominated her and shared why she is an extraordinary nurse leader.
“Over the past 12 months alone, Judy has taken her leadership to another level! At the end of 2019, she and I began having discussions related to succession planning and her desire to scale back and move closer toward retirement that spring,” the leader shared. “In February of 2020, before any of us knew what was truly in store, Judy made a comment to me that I will never forget. ‘This is going to be bad; this is going to be really bad,’ and her intuition was spot on. Just a few weeks later, as the pandemic began to evolve, Judy made the decision to cut her vacation short, and drive home from Florida to aide HFM in managing the soon-to-be crisis. For many with retirement in the forefront, this would have been the perfect opportunity to walk away, before the stress of the pandemic came down full force, but for Judy, she decided to jump in and commit 100%. She recognized the impact on HFM, and more importantly the impact the pandemic would on the safety and wellbeing of our employees.”
“Judy has been a dynamic leader as we have navigated through the challenges we are faced with in relations to COVID-19. She has and continues to work long and hard to ensure the safety of our employees, patients, and community during this pandemic, and continuously demonstrates HFM’s Mission, Vision and Values while going above and beyond daily,” shared the leader.
DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System. The DAISY Award was established by the DAISY Foundation in memory of J. Patrick Barnes who died at 33 of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP), an auto-immune disease.
The Barnes Family was awestruck by the clinical skills, caring and compassion of the nurses who cared for Barnes, so they created this international award to say thank you to nurses everywhere.
HFM implemented the DAISY Awards to recognize their own extraordinary nurses. Patients, family members of patients, or colleagues can nominate nurses for The DAISY Award. If you or a loved one received care from an extraordinary HFM nurse, complete a nomination form at hfmhealth.org/daisy.
About Holy Family Memorial
Holy Family Memorial, in affiliation with the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network, is the recognized leader and largest provider of comprehensive health care services in Manitowoc County. Founded by the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, Holy Family Memorial, rooted in the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, is committed to providing high quality medical care and dedicated to helping individuals in the communities Holy Family Memorial serves achieve healthier lives. The Froedtert & MCW health network operates eastern Wisconsin’s only academic medical center and adult Level I Trauma Center at Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee. It also includes eight hospital locations, nearly 2,000 physicians and more than 45 health centers and clinics.