To continue to recognize and champion the great work of oncology nurses around the world, the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) announces its support for The DAISY Foundation™ and its DAISY Award™ for Extraordinary Nurses.
The DAISY Foundation, an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System, was created in memory of J. Patrick Barnes to express his family’s gratitude for the skillful and amazingly compassionate care he received from his nurses when he was hospitalized with the autoimmune disease idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) in late 1999. Barnes was also a two-time survivor of Hodgkin disease.
The DAISY Award honors the work of oncology in nearly 2,300 healthcare organizations throughout the United States and in 14 other countries. ONS is participating in a relationship with The DAISY Foundation to help expand awareness among oncology nurses of this unique opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary compassionate care and skill that oncology nurses provide to patients every day.
“The DAISY Foundation has been successful in providing meaningful recognition of direct care nurses who impact their patients and their organizations. We are delighted that many oncology nurses have already been honored by their colleagues with The DAISY Award and look forward to helping the DAISY Foundation celebrate many more,” said Brenda Nevidjon, MSN, RN, FAAN, ONS chief executive officer.
Bonnie Barnes, FAAN, co-founder and president of The DAISY Foundation and Patrick’s stepmother, said, “Patrick was a cancer survivor, and his disease took a terrible toll on his immune system. We learned from personal experience just how remarkable nurses’ clinical skill is. What really touched our hearts during Pat’s treatment for Hodgkin disease and later during his eight-week hospitalization with ITP is the level of compassion and kindness nurses also bring to their patients and families. So we created DAISY to celebrate the super-human work nurses do every day—work they take for granted but that makes a profound difference in their patients’ lives. We hope that with ONS’s support, we will bring our message of gratitude to many more deserving oncology nurses and provide many more patients and colleagues a way to celebrate their stories of extraordinary care.”
The DAISY Award is one way the DAISY Foundation expresses its gratitude to nurses. Additionally, DAISY offers grants for nursing research and evidence-based practice projects in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases and honors nursing faculty and students in colleges and schools of nursing. For more information about The DAISY Foundation, visit
www.DAISYfoundation.org.
ONS is a professional association of more than 39,000 members committed to promoting excellence in oncology nursing and the transformation of cancer care. Since 1975, ONS has provided a professional community for oncology nurses, developed evidence-based education programs and treatment information, and advocated for patient care, all in an effort to improve quality of life and outcomes for patients with cancer and their families. Learn more at
www.ons.org.
