Jacksonville, Texas (May 13, 2022) — Melody Sharp, RN, recently was selected as a DAISY Award winner.
“Melody is a remarkable nurse. She started here as a graduate vocational nurse and worked here as an LVN while attending school to get her RN,” said Michael Hales, chief nursing officer for UT Health Jacksonville. “Now as a registered nurse in the ICU she’s flexible, adaptable and sets the example for her peers in how to care for our patients at UT Health Jacksonville.”
Nurses may be nominated by patients, families and colleagues and the award recipient is chosen by a committee at UT Health East Texas. Sharp received a formal nomination from a family member of one of her patients.
“Thank you so much for showing up for work and providing your special skills to care for (my loved one) and giving me answers to my questions, which guided me successfully in my own way to accept his passing on to Heaven,” the nomination letter read. “Your compassion and reliability were inspiring and well-needed.”
As a winner of the DAISY Award, Sharp received a certificate, a DAISY Award pin and a sculpture called A Healer’s Touch, hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe. Awards are presented throughout the year at celebrations attended by the honoree’s colleagues, patients and visitors.
The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, who died in 1999 at age 33 from complications of an autoimmune disease (DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.) The care Barnes and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families. Today, this program has been implemented in more than 1,900 healthcare facilities, including UT Health East Texas.