DAISY Award Winner — Team: Stories from the Bedside

Welcome to the second episode of Rehab Rounds, the official podcast from the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses. 

This episode celebrates the DAISY Team Award and the rehabilitation team at Lake Charles Memorial Health System — ARN's award recipients this year. More than a celebration, it's a conversation about what extraordinary care looks like from the inside: the decisions made in patient rooms, the trust built across weeks of recovery, and the teamwork that makes transformation possible.

Host Dr. Grace Campbell brings in the DAISY Foundation to set the context, invites the Lake Charles team to share their stories, and closes with a Member Story Spotlight and a call for nurses to nominate their own peers and teams.

Key topics covered:
• What the DAISY Foundation is and why it matters to nursing culture
• ARN's partnership with the DAISY Foundation
• Stories from the award-winning Lake Charles Memorial rehabilitation team
• How recognition shapes culture and sustains nurses through demanding work
• Member Story Spotlight: a bedside moment submitted by an ARN member
• Call to action: nominate a peer or team for an ARN award

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

You became a rehab nurse because this specialty demands a different kind of knowledge. And ARN's Rehabilitation Nursing Knowledge Base was built to match that. It's the entire former core curriculum, now digitized, searchable, and updated in real time. No more waiting on five-year print cycles while the field moves forward. Stroke, spinal cord injury, wound care, CRRN study materials, and more all in one place. Subscribe annually or try it month to month. Members get a discount. Head to learn.rehabnurse.org now to subscribe.

SPEAKER_05 0:43

Welcome to Rehab Rounds. I'm Grace Campbell, and I'm really looking forward to the conversation that we have in store for you today. We're talking about recognition, about what it looks like when a rehabilitation team shows up for a patient in a way that changes everything. And specifically, we're talking about the Daisy Award today. And I have Deb Zimmerman, CEO of the Daisy Foundation, here with me today, along with Chantel Willis and Thelma Batiste from Lake Charles Memorial Health System in Louisiana. And they are members of this year's ARN Daisy Team Award recipients. We'll close with a personal recollection of my own from the bedside to help spur you to think about your own team and the many recognition-worthy ways that they make a difference. Are you ready? Let's go. Deb, welcome. We're so thrilled that you're here. I would like to start off by asking you to introduce yourself a little bit and then tell our audience who may not know the Daisy Foundation, where did this all come from and what does the Daisy Foundation exist to do? Thank you, Grace.

SPEAKER_04 1:54

I am absolutely delighted to be with you, ARN, and the entire rehab nursing community. I am the CEO of the Daisy Foundation. I am a nurse. My beginnings in our profession started as a military nurse, a nurse practitioner, and then as a chief nursing officer in Virginia and New York. And I have had the privilege of serving as the CEO for the Daisy Foundation for about four years now. The Daisy Foundation was created by the by the Barnes family, whose son Patrick died from complications of an autoimmune disease at the age of 33. During Patrick's hospitalization, his family experienced extraordinary clinical skill. They were overwhelmed by their nurses and their compassion and the human connection that they made while caring for him and with their family. After he died, they wanted a meaningful way to thank nurses everywhere for the care that they provided and wanted nurses to see the impact that they have. What began is One Family's Gratitude has now grown into an international recognition program that honors nurses and nurse-led teams in healthcare organizations and schools of nursing around the world. At its heart, Daisy exists to recognize extraordinary clinical care, compassion, teamwork, and the human connections nurses bring to patients every day, everywhere. And the Lake Charles Memorial Rehab team is a beautiful example of why Daisy exists. Their nomination reflects nurses coming together to improve safety, elevate care, and support patients through difficult recoveries while continuously striving to get better. That is extraordinary nursing action.

SPEAKER_05 3:52

Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more. And we are thrilled to have the Lake Charles team with us today. And we're going to hear their story in just a moment. Deb, I wanted to ask you, you know, you clearly understand the extraordinary work that nurses do every day. You've done it yourself. Tell me what stands out about the Daisy recognition that is unique in the world of nursing awards, because there are many. And I'm just sort of I'm looking for amplification on what stands out about Daisy.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

Thank you for asking that question. Because even I did not understand as a chief nursing officer until I saw Daisy in action. Meaningful recognition is recognition that comes from those that mean the most to those who serve on the front line. And we are in a profession that often focuses on the negative, problem-oriented medical documentation, five ways to assess pain. When that recognition comes from those that matter most, patients, families, and colleagues, it is our tie to purpose. It is why we chose to become nurses. So when we have families describe the attributes that are so meaningful to them, it reinforces to a new nurse that they have chosen the right profession and they're competent. And to us who have been in nursing for a while, it reinforces that we still have it and sometimes minimizes some of the cynicism that you see that can occur over time. With the Lake Charles rehab team, what stands out is that they built a culture which frontline team members felt ownership about patient outcomes. What they it allowed them to really connect what matters most. Through their practice counsel, they addressed falls, they addressed CADI's pressure injury injuries, not as isolated problems, but as shared responsibility. They came together as a team and they created structures where nurses could lead solutions and they could lead them together. And the outcomes when nurses work together are extraordinary. And we saw that with the Lake Charles team. Low falls rate, zero caughty, zero hospital acquired pressure injuries, and that their own learning and certification grew among the team. Beyond the metrics, recognition reinforces pride, teamwork, professional identity, and it reminds nurses that the work they do every day changes lives.

SPEAKER_05 6:47

So that is so important, Deb, this idea of focusing on the positive work on the front line. Because as nurses, we so often hear about all the things we need to be doing better. And I love the way you sort of frame this as shared responsibility for outcomes. And I would like to ask then, what shifts in a team or in a unit after they've been formally recognized for that shared responsibility and for really taking that on? What do you see?

SPEAKER_04 7:18

It's about partnership. And what I see is that rehab nursing is incredibly relational. Rehab nurses walk aline alongside patients during long and difficult recovery. They help people regain independence, confidence, dignity, and hope. And none of that happens in isolation. What makes rehab nursing so special and recognition so special is the level of the interdisciplinary work and the ability to expand and amplify the teamwork that comes when a team works together on a challenge. And the rewards and the ability to see that sometimes things that are believed to be impossible are absolutely certainly within reach and can go beyond and achieve accomplishments that people never thought possible.

SPEAKER_05 8:17

Well, you have just actually stated exactly what rehabilitation nursing is, which is frankly convincing everyone, ourselves and our patients and their families, that the impossible is actually possible. And so it feels like Daisy and ARN are such a great fit for each other. And we're so glad that we've begun partnering with you to offer this type of recognition to our rehabilitation nursing teams in particular. It's just a wonderful opportunity.

SPEAKER_06 8:47

If you're responsible for developing your rehab nursing team, ARN Institutional Membership gives you a real education infrastructure. Your nurses get access to evidence-based clinical content, continuing education, and specialty resources built specifically for rehabilitation. It's not a dues payment, it's a development program. And for facilities running a clinical ladder, ARN membership maps directly to the kind of documented learning and professional growth those programs require. Your nurses advance, your unit gets stronger. Head to rehabnurse.org to learn more about institutional membership.

SPEAKER_05 9:25

So this is the first year that we've partnered in this way. And so what I'd like to do now is let our listeners hear about the first team from a rehabilitation hospital recognized by Daisy under this new award category. So I'd like to welcome our next guests, Chantelle Willis from the Lake Charles Memorial Rehabilitation Program, to our talk today. And Chantelle has brought another of her team members with her, Ms. Thelma Batiste. Welcome, Chantel and Thelma. First, can you each introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about what you bring to us today?

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Hi, and thank you. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to shine a light on rehab nursing. I'm Chantelle Willis. I have been in nursing for over 20 years. And I've only really been in rehab nursing for about five. And honestly didn't truly understand the impact of rehab nursing until, you know, I really uh came here. And it's just amazing to be able to see our patients um do well and see them get back into the world. So I've been in Memorial for about 13 years. And one of the big things when I came here was trying to how do we make sure that our patients get the best of us? How do we make sure we give them the outcomes that they need? Um, and we can't do it alone. It's not just nursing. Um, it takes the whole team, the whole interdisciplinary team, and that's kind of what we have to stand on. So I'm so proud of this team. Um, and but that's you know where we where we are, and we're continuing to we fail still and we continue to grow and continue to learn. I think that's important to say um that you have to continue to grow even when things don't always go the way you want it to. Um, so I do have Miss Thelma Batisse, who's one of our leads. She's um our our chair of our unit practice council who is extremely active, um, which is why we've had some of the outcomes that allow her to introduce herself.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Hi, uh, thank you for having me. Uh, I am Thelma and I do work in rehab. It's a place, a different environment, but it is so rewarding for me as well as the patients here. You can see a difference in a short period, a period of time with our patients. They come in and some of them are discouraged, but by a few days, some of them and all of them within a week, they see a difference. It's a positive place in a negative world. And I like that, you know. Everything is growing and getting better each and every day with our patients. And we are there as a team to help them through it, you know. We make sure that they are safe, they are, you know, cared for, pain management, all those things to help them get better. I love this place because before I came here, I did not know how involved the care was. And once I got in, that was it. I knew I found the place that I love to be. With our patients each and every day, you have something new. And as a nurse, you learn every week something new, not only from rehab, but from the patients. And that is so special. It keeps me going every day.

SPEAKER_05 12:53

Well, thank you both for that. And you've you've touched on that idea that we talked about with Deb a minute ago about making the impossible possible. And you two are just a shining example of that every day. Now, Chantal, I know that you have your CRRN. Thelma, do you also have your CRRN? Yes, I do. Let me just put in a shameless little plug there for specialty certification. Um, but I think it really does help to bring forward that we are such a specialty. So, Chantel and Thelma, you have really talked a lot about that theme that we were echoing earlier a few minutes ago with Deb, this idea of making the impossible possible. And that is something that we remind ourselves every day and that we remind our patients and families about every day. And so I would like to now ask you to tell us about the care specifically that your team provided that led to the Daisy nomination. Tell us the story.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

So we began to see a little more difficult patients. Um, and I think sometimes uh people may think, oh, rehab nurses don't aren't really nurses. So um our medical director had a strong indication of we need to take these patients. Yes, they may be a little more acute, but we need to help them. And so we needed to get on board. And what we started to see though was that we were seeing infections, we were seeing caughtys, we were seeing more falls, um, and and we really needed to come together to figure out what's going on, how do we fix this for our patients? Um we were seeing pressure injuries, we weren't used to seeing those types of outcomes, and we wanted to make a difference. I couldn't do it alone. Um, and I knew that. And I and I challenged the team to come up with plans. How do we change our outcomes? Let's dig in, do our research, and figure out how do we make this stay better for our patients? Because we definitely never want to harm them. Um, and and they they took it and they owned it, and it was like powerful. And they also realized that okay, we're gonna have to get more involved. We have to do this more as an interdisciplinary, we could, we can't do this alone. They really started having conversations with our therapy team. Okay, this is this is what we're seeing, this is what we want to do. They put things in place that truly made a difference. And and at first they got pushback from their team members, and you know, they had to really stick together and say, nope, this is this is what we need to do. We have to hold each other accountable. And we saw some amazing outcomes. And I will say, after we were recognized, we were up to we had zero cardis, and then we had a cardi, and it was devastating because they truly owned the process and they were like, what happened? How did we allow this to happen? And they when we had root cause analysis of let's really drill down and figure out what did we do wrong. We realized we did have to kind of work with our acute team to make sure that you know things were moving from the acute to us, and how do we make sure that treatment plan was followed? And so honestly, I was able to really step back because they took it on. And it was, it was just, it's just amazing to see that. And this union practice council continues to grow and continues to hold their own team members accountable. I'm just there as the support. Um, and so I think that that's just been it's just so wonderful to see that impact and how it impacts our outcomes of our patients, especially when we have our patients come back to us. And uh May have mentioned it's like so often we have our patients come back and just thank the team, just thank them for um helping them through a difficult time in their life.

SPEAKER_05 16:48

Thanks from patients and families is absolutely the best. It's one of the things that we live for as rehabilitation nurses. Now, um, Chantel, you're the leader of the program. Um, I want to ask Thelma a little bit um from a per the person who's not in charge of the program, but is one of those team members. Thelma, how did this all feel for you? And how did you sort of integrate that planning and that positivity every day in your um in your care that you provided as a team member?

SPEAKER_02 17:20

As a team, I I usually like to deal with the whole team through communications. And one of the things that we did do is make sure that even though we give report at the changes shift, we uh incorporated a special, you know, meeting on uh the beginning of the week to kind of do a little bit more. It involves more information and it's carried over to our team conference that we have with all the patients. They all can't be there, but we would like for just about everyone to put in the extra special information that is needed. I mean, you have a classical, you know, general information, and that helped. It uh gave everyone insight, not only on their patients, but all the patients. And then the ones that were going to the teen case conference was able to carry over the information and be that unique person as a nurse, given the information to help the patients. It's it's much more, it's quality care, and that's what we wanted.

SPEAKER_05 18:29

That is so true. And um, you know, it's that idea that we're all striving for quality together that really comes through in your story. All right. Now, your team really took ownership at that team level about improving outcomes, um, which sounded like it was a negative, but it really became a huge positive force for you. Um, and so I want to ask you a little bit about what real teamwork looks on your unit, interdisciplinary teamwork. Um, because I know that it doesn't always go smoothly. So, what does it actually take to make this work? What's that special sauce that your team brings?

SPEAKER_02 19:10

I think with us, and we're from it's all about just making sure that everybody is involved. There's no less or greater. And uh we all seem to enjoy having that feeling between each other, all the nurses. It's just the community where we're from. And when you do that, you know, they put more into helping the patients and giving more. It's the plus, you know. And uh I know a different city, state may do it slightly different, but when everybody knows that we're treating them, you know, almost like a family environment. The communication is much more open, you know. We're uh taking things and really caring, not only through the nurses, but through the families and the patients. All of a sudden, you know, everybody is involved. It's not just one nurse taking care of several, it's everybody as a team. And that's the way we like it, just making sure we're all involved.

SPEAKER_05 20:16

And it sounds like that teamwork carried on even when patients went down to the therapy gyms and that sort of thing. It just sounded like it really permeates the fabric of who you are, it seems like. And and I think that's so that's so incredible to see because I think we all struggle with that teamwork. Can I put you on the spot, uh, Chantal or Thelma, and ask you to tell me a little bit about specific patients that you may have cared for during this time leading up to your award, so that we can sort of put that human touch to it?

SPEAKER_03 20:53

I think of a patient that um a young pay, he was young. And when he came to us, it was a trauma um originally, and he came to us and um he was real depressed. It was rough. It was a young man who now wasn't sure if he'd be able to work, wasn't sure, you know, if he would could provide. And um yeah, she stayed with us a little bit longer than what we thought he would, but it was a transition for this this patient. And to be able to see when he first got to us where he was and where he ended was the reason we do what we do. Um, he, man, I wasn't even sure if he would be able to work again, let alone really walk again. He had multiple complications. Um, but at the end, he was able to go back into the community. And when he came back to us, what maybe a month later he came. Visit um when he had a doctor visit and was just so appreciative and and thankful we were with him through that process. And I think those are the things that you know keep us going. It's like this is why we do what we do. And then we had another patient. He it was just a stroke patient. He was he would come see us probably every other week. But you know, when he came to us, he could barely move or walk or do things independently. And he was walking up to see us. It's those cases that's like, wow, we we really had an impact on that patient's outcome.

SPEAKER_05 22:38

Thank you so much for sharing those stories. They they really got at the spirit of what helped your team win this award. Now I'd like to ask you a little bit about subsequent to the award, how has this changed your team on an ongoing basis?

SPEAKER_03 22:54

Well, I will say that um when we first started this process, we had some turnover. Um and we're now have people that is almost waitlisted. You and you don't always see that in in healthcare. Um, so people here are they when they come to us, it it just it's different. And so where they may float to us and and next thing we know, you have someone applying. So right now I'm really just kind of well, put people. So I think that speaks volumes. Um the other thing is the they just the ownership of what's happening. When I bring something, hey guys, this is this is an issue, this has come up. I don't give them what that plan is going to be. I generally send it to the unit practice council and the team decides what are what are we gonna do about that. Um, and so I think having that ownership makes a difference in outcomes.

SPEAKER_05 23:55

That is so very, very true. I love that the team has really started to internalize all of this into this is this is how we are. This is the way we treat patients. And I think that's so powerful. Thank you so much for that. Now, before we close, I want to share a little bit of a story that happened from my own years at the bedside. And it's remarkably similar to the story that Chantal and Thelma just shared about the young man who was a trauma who came into their unit. Um, we also had uh Greg, a 38-year-old, who came into our unit after an industrial accident, a large steel coil. You know, you see them driving down the highway on semi-trailers. He was what part of the team that was helping to unload this. And this large steel coil rolled off the truck and cut him almost to the hip. So he was a very high amputation. And he was an active guy, not just at work, but in his personal life. His passions were hunting and fishing. And I remember so clearly the day that he and his fiancee, Jeannie, rolled off the elevator to our unit. And I don't know what they had been told in acute care about rehab, but the look of terror in their eyes was what really first grabbed my attention. Um, and and they talked about how they had been told that rehab's really hard work and they were petrified. So we were able to just talk and just listen before we did anything. Admission assist assessment can wait. Let's just talk. Let's just listen. Let's hear about what your hopes and dreams are and what your fears are and how we can work with you. And they immediately started to relax. And then we got them in the shower. Now, that was the first thing that had happened. That first time that had happened during the whole time since his accident. So we got him in the shower. And he began to see just from those simple actions that we were really here to help him discover how he was going to live his life moving forward. And you know, we got so into this that we had a, we tried to keep the bed, the opposite bed in the room free. And our staff made a pretty sign and put it above the bed that said Jeannie's bed. Um, so we really tried to make it like home for them. Our environmental services team even got into the act. They knew that we had been coaching him on how to lean over to pick up objects from the floor without falling out of the wheelchair. Um, and so when they were in the room cleaning, they would coach him on that when he was trying to do that. They were truly part of the team. So it wasn't just the nurses and the therapist. So, you know, fast forward, we got him involved with the the adaptive sports program in our city. He learned how to um cast his fishing rod again. Um, and OT worked on those motions, those arm motions and maintaining his balance. PT did as well. Um, and then after prosthetic gait training, Greg and Jeannie walked to my office to thank me and the team for giving them their lives back, just like you talked about with your patients thanking you for giving them their lives and their courage. So here's the thing: these stories are not unusual at all. Any of you who are working in rehab know this because this is what you all live every single day. And that's really the point here. Everyone in the rehabilitation community is doing great work, and everyone is capable of and deserves recognition. So I hope that the stories that we've shared for for you today allow you to all realize that you're just doing special work. So I'd like Deb to thank you so much for the work that the Daisy Foundation does every day to make nurses feel seen and heard. Chantal and Thelma, you and your team represent everything that this specialty is, and I'm so grateful that you are here. I hope this conversation has helped everyone in our audience to realize that what you do is special and is recognition worthy. So here's what I'd like you to do: think about everyone on your team. Nominate someone, a colleague, a nurse, the entire team. Visit rehabnurse.org to learn about ARN's award programs because someone you know, probably multiple someones that you know, deserve to be recognized. And think about how you can recognize each other at your own workplaces, too. That recognition from peers is so important as well. Rehab nursing is remarkable work. And as Chantal spoke so passionately, um, once she got into rehab, she realized just how special it is. I had the same experience. All of you doing rehab are remarkable people. Please don't let that go unsaid. Say it to each other, say it to yourselves. And until next time, take care.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

The membership helps you get there. Visit rehabnurse.org to learn more.