Memorial Announces Katie Chambley, BSN,RN DAISY Foundation Award Winner

The December DAISY Foundation award winner is Kathie Chambley, BSN, RN. She works on the 9 tower ICU which currently cares for our most critical COVID-19 patients. The DAISY award is a national award that recognizes extraordinary nurses. 

From the nominator:

I have long thought that Katie Chambley represented everything that the DAISY honor stands for. And I have spent many an hour contemplating which story best represents Katie as a nurse. I don't have one single story, beginning to end, for Katie. Instead, I have many bits and pieces to multiple stories that better represents who Katie is as a nurse - because it's not just her patients and families that have the opportunity to experience her compassion, it's all the patients, family members, and her coworkers that have any interaction with her.

The first time I was just taken in awe of Katie was when she was caring for a young patient, in her 30s, a mother. This particular case took quite a toll on all the staff in the MICU. But Katie showed up every day with that smile on her face that says to families "I know you're hurting and this is a difficult and tragic situation, but I am here to help you through this". She took the time to wash, brush, and braid this young woman's hair just so there was some normalcy for the family to recognize. And after the woman passed away, she had a seedling delivered to her husband and children for them to plant and grow in her honor and memory.

Another story I have about Katie's caring is the time I witnessed her attempting to transfer a patient out of the MICU. The patient was nervous about leaving, but Katie stopped pushing the wheelchair, knelt down on the floor, and proceeded to pray with that patient, hugging him and reassuring him all would be fine. He was comforted with those actions and words and was then ready to leave her care.

Most recently, with COVID, Katie has continued to care for patients the same. She had an older gentleman patient just this past week pass away. She had cared for him for weeks. She had formed a bond with his wife - comforting and caring for her as well. The physicians and nurses had exhausted all their resources. His children were going to be seeing him for the first time in weeks. Katie was in his room for hours, bathing him, grooming his hair and face, making every attempt to make him look like "Dad" again. And it was on her day off the family decided it was time to make him comfortable. Katie came in to be with the family. She comforted them through the entire process.

These are just my snippets of my observances of Katie's life as an ICU nurse. She has the ability to form a welcoming, comforting bond with every single patient in our unit and every single visitor that comes through our doors. She laughs with her patients and family members just as easily as she cries with them. Combing/braiding someone's matted hair or shaving an unruly beard may seem unnecessary and trivial to an outsider......but to those families, to have their final vision of their loved one be something familiar to them.....well that is everything. And that is what Katie provides. She gives the amazing ICU nursing care that is expected. But she gives the little, trivial things as well. She truly is the epitome of the "nursing is a calling" phrase.

About DAISY

In late 1999, at the age of 33, Patrick Barnes awoke with some blood blisters in his mouth. Having survived Hodgkins Disease twice, he was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with the auto-immune disease, ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura).

Said his father, Mark Barnes, "We are so blessed that we were able to spend the eight weeks of his hospitalization with him and his family. During those weeks, we experienced the best of Nursing. We were there to see the clinical skill that dealt with his very complex medical situation, the fast thinking of nurses who saved his life more than once, and that nursing excellence that took years to hone to the best of the profession. But frankly, as a patient family, we rather expected that Pat would have great clinical care. That was why he was in the hospital. What we did not expect was the way his nurses delivered that care - the kindness and compassion they gave Pat and all of us in his family every day. We were awed by the way the nurses touched him and spoke with him, even when he was on a ventilator and totally sedated. The way they informed and educated us eased our minds. They truly helped us through the darkest hours of our lives, with soft voices of hope and strong loving hugs that to this day, we still feel."

Just days after he died, the family began talking about what they would do to help fill the giant hole in their hearts that Pat’s passing had left. His wife came up with the acronym, DAISY, standing for diseases attacking the immune system. As they discussed what to do in Patrick’s memory, first and foremost, they wanted to say Thank You for the gifts nurses give their patients and families every day. That is when the family created The DAISY Award For Extraordinary Nurses.

Click here to read more about Kathie.