Medical Matters: How we salute our exceptional healthcare staff

Chantal Baker, Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Lead at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, talks about how the organisation has been celebrating the hard work of its nursing, midwifery and support worker colleagues over the past year.

At Torbay and South Devon NHS, we are passionate about recognising and celebrating our incredible colleagues. We have several award schemes running, including Our People Awards which are for colleagues in all professions and departments. My role is to promote excellence in nursing and midwifery professions. Since 2020, we have been awarding the DAISY Award, which is part of the international DAISY Foundation’s mission to recognise the extraordinary, compassionate nursing and midwifery care.

The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, by members of his family. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 and the care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique way of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.

Inspired by this, we supported our healthcare support worker shared decision-making council to set up the Primrose award, which is dedicated to recognising healthcare support workers. The award provides an opportunity for members of the public and colleagues to express a well-deserved thank you to people who are an essential part in the delivery of care.

Healthcare support worker covers a range of staff, which can include healthcare assistants (HCAs), maternity support workers, podiatry assistants, theatre assistants, volunteers, porters and many more. Reflecting on 2023, we presented eight DAISY awards and six Primrose awards. 2023 was the first year the Primrose award was presented. Over the course of the first year, we were so please to receive almost 100 nominations for our healthcare support worker colleagues. 

We also had more than 160 DAISY nominations for our nursing and midwifery colleagues, all of whom have been nominated by either a colleague, patient or family member. Our DAISY winners during 2023 were Verity Marlin, Helen Thatcher, Mars Manahan, Ellie Banning and Phil Baker, as well as Midgley ward who won the annually awarded DAISY team award. Our first ever Primrose award winner was Theresa Northcott, followed by Sadie Bee, Samantha Edmunds, Jack Doxsey, Louise Evens and Stephen Brown.

In June we were lucky enough to have a visit from Melissa Barnes, the vice president of operations of the DAISY Foundation. She flew over from America to visit some of the UK hospitals that are partnered with the DAISY Foundation. We have been partnered with them since 2020 and were really delighted to meet Melissa in person. During her visit, she met some of our DAISY winners past and present over breakfast, and she also gave two DAISY awards out whilst she was here; one to Mars on Allerton ward and one to Helen Thatcher from Dawlish Community Hospital which was really special, hearing the story of the origin of the DAISY foundation from a family member really brought the awards to life and made the event extra special.

We ended the year with our annual DAISY team award. The recipient of this prestigious award was Midgley ward who were nominated by a patient’s family as they went above and beyond to deliver care at what was a really challenging time. I would like to congratulate all of our winners and nominees in 2023, and look forward to reading more stories of colleagues going above and beyond this year. Members of the public can nominate for both the DAISY and Primrose awards all year round.