ROME, Ga., May 11, 2023 – Grayson Moss, an ICU nurse at Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center, was named the 2023 DAISY of the Year winner during a luncheon held Wednesday.
The honor comes during Nurses Week, observed every May to pay tribute to the hard work and dedication that nurses exhibit all year long caring for patients.
The DAISY Award is an international program that recognizes bedside nurses. The family of Patrick Barnes established the award after he died from an auto-immune disease while being treated in a Seattle hospital.
Sheila Bennett, senior vice president and chief of patient services at Floyd, presented Moss with the award.
She pointed out that the award is unique because the monthly DAISY winners have to be nominated by a patient or the family member of a patient.
“That is how you know the award is genuine," Bennett said. “Often the patients are scared and their family members can be as well when they are in the hospital. This award means you can know that you made a difference."
Moss, a registered nurse, started working at Atrium Health Floyd as a nurse technician while he was in nursing school. He completed nursing school in May of 2022 and started in ICU later last year. He was first named a monthly DAISY winner this past March.
His demeanor meant a lot a woman who was at the hospital during her aunt's final days.
"It's never easy to lose a family member," the woman wrote in a form nominating Moss for a DAISY Award. “This nurse will never know how much his kindness meant."
Moss said he realizes that to be a good nurse, you have to be sensitive to the needs of the patient as well as family members.
“You are caring primarily for the patient, but you have to remember that often you are caring for the family too," Moss said. “Sometimes they can be frightened and want to know what is going on."