April 15, 2016 at 3:48 p.m.
Going above and beyond: Local nurse honored with DAISY award
Going above and beyond: Local nurse honored with DAISY award
By Kayla Thomason-
The honor recognizes the "super-human efforts nurses perform every day."
This is the first year Ministry Home Care has participated in the national award program and the organization wanted to recognize its hard-working nurses and staff.
Approximately 2,200 health care systems and 15 countries are in the program and recipients are chosen quarterly based on their extraordinary compassion and clinical expertise.
"It was really surprising, we were really excited to have one of our staff in the Northwoods be the first one within Ministry Home Care to win the DAISY award," said Ann Ovsak, director with Ministry Home Care for home health and hospice programs in Rhinelander and Arbor Vitae.
Olson has been working with Ministry Home Care for exactly a year, and received multiple nominations from his co-workers and patients.
"We're really proud of the care that Todd gives and he was nominated by four of his peers for always going above and beyond and even patients had written in letters recognizing the great work that he does every day," said Ovsak.
"I think Todd is an excellent nurse, an extraordinary nurse," Ovsack added. "Todd goes above and beyond every day to really give patients compassionate care, especially patients as they are nearing the end of their life."
Olson was feeling a little overwhelmed as the news of the award sunk in, he said
"I think it's a great honor, especially knowing what it stands for," he said. "It's something that we do every day, I don't go out there and say 'Oh, I'm going to shoot for this award,' it's just something that we do and we take care of people."
Olson said he doesn't view this award as his achievement alone, but attributes his success to the rest of the staff -chaplins, bereavement coordinators, CNAs and volunteers.
"Without my team I wouldn't be doing as good of a job as I do without their important advice and leadership," he said.
Olson wasn't always a nurse. He worked for Harley-Davidson for 15 years before switching careers. He said he finds the medical field to be a rewarding career, although he enjoyed his co-workers and work at Harley-Davidson.
The kind and encouraging words of a friend planted the idea in his head, he said.
A few years ago, he and his friend, April Kuehn, were sitting by a bonfire when she told him he'd be great at nursing.
He looked into it, but at the time he had a baby at home and couldn't quit his job to go to school full-time.
Later, Kuehn developed lung cancer and passed away, which gave Olson additional fuel to look into the career change.
"With that, I kind of went into looking into nursing a little bit more, I thought life is too short to kind of not do what you want to do," he said.
He went into a nursing assistant program, which he enjoyed, and from there everything fell into place.
"It's a very rewarding career," he said, adding that he has met a lot of amazing people along the way.
Since becoming a nurse, Olson said he has come to realize that people fear hospice. He said he tries to take that fear away by being involved with the families and patients.
Hospice helps patients achieve final wishes or desires, offer bereavement care, funeral arrangements, and more. Hospice workers also keep in touch with the grieving families for 13 months after a loved one has passed.
"It's not only about taking care of and making your death how you want it to be but it's kind of like your last making sure your loved ones are taken care of after you leave," Ovsak said.
Nurses all over the world do exceptional work and touch the lives of others on a daily basis. Over a decade ago a family realized this, and wanted to show its gratitude to nurses everywhere.
The DAISY Award is part of the DAISY Foundation's program, which was created by family members of J. Patrick Barnes, 33, who died in 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP).
ITP is an autoimmune disease.
"The DAISY award was developed based on the extraordinary care that one of their family members received and to recognize the nurses that cared for him," Ovsak said. "So they, after he died, they really looked at how can we give back to all nurses everywhere because we know it's not special to the nurses that cared for him."
One of Barnes' last requests was to have Cinnabon cinnamon rolls. Cinnabon works with the DAISY Foundation and has a contract with them, so the staff of the award recipient always gets cinnamon rolls, Ovsak said.
The DAISY Award recipients also receive a pin, reduced tuition for future education, and a hand-carved sculpture titled "A Healer's Touch." created by the artists of the Shona Tribe in Africa.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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