Summary
Jared Johnson, a nurse practitioner in ARRMC's Intensive Care Unit, was nominated for a DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses.
Those who work with Jared Johnson in ARRMC’s Intensive Care Unit will not be surprised that he was nominated for a DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. This is a nurse practitioner, after all, who gently talked a violent patient out of harming himself and others. And he is the nurse who spent hours with the grieving family of an organ donor who lost his life in a car crash.
So when an EMS backlog delayed the transfer of a critically ill patient at Asante Ashland, it was Johnson who volunteered himself and another ICU nurse to make the 11-mile drive to pick up the patient themselves.
“In full PPE, he placed that patient on a mobile ventilator, onto a gurney and put him in the back of his car,” said the colleague who nominated Johnson for the DAISY.
Despite the nurses’ heroic effort, the patient did not survive. Yet Johnson’s example reminded others of the power of doing good, and of the reason they became nurses.
“It was that compassion and experience I saw that gave me true hope for humanity,” the co-worker wrote. “This world needs more people like Jared.”
In 2019, Johnson also earned Asante’s Annual Values in Action Award for his remarkable service. This video shares his story.
Patients and others may nominate nurses for a DAISY at any Asante hospital, based on factors including care of and compassion for patients and their loved ones.
The DAISY Foundation was established in 1999 in honor of Patrick Barnes, who died in Seattle of idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura. His parents created the DAISY Foundation (DAISY is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system) to recognize nurses for the exceptional care they provided their son during his illness. Hospitals around the world have since adopted the program.