News Center

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

St. Francis Health nurses offer extraordinary compassion in difficult situations

Monica Lee


INDIANAPOLIS – Two registered nurses at Franciscan St. Francis Health have been praised by patients and peers for above-and-beyond the call in care giving.

To that end, Beech Grove registered nurses Monica Lee and Traci Welsh have been named the March 2011 recipients of the hospital’s DAISY Awards.

Lee, who works in the oncology unit, was nominated by a colleague and family member of a former patient, respectively. The latter wrote: “Monica was extraordinary in caring for my uncle and her compassion helped everyone in his family be more comfortable and at peace through a difficult situation.”

Lee’s fellow nurse commented: “She clearly is a favorite nurse among our patients as well as being a strong clinician. Although in the infancy of her career as a nurse, she is a true professional and motivates our team.”

Welsh was nominated by a former patient, who had been hospitalized on her unit three times over the last four years.

“I have never met a nurse with her level of professionalism she showed to me and her fellow nurses,” the patient wrote. “She was never in a hurry when she came to my room to tend to me.”

The DAISY Award was established by the DAISY Foundation in memory of J. Patrick Barnes who died at 33 an auto-immune disease. His family was so impressed by the clinical skills, caring and compassion of the nurses who cared for him that they created this national award to say “thank you” to nurses everywhere. For more information, go to

www.daisyfoundation.org.

To learn more about nursing careers and programs at St. Francis, go to www.stfrancishospitals.org/nursing.

TRACI WELSH