Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center (EMRMC) is pleased to recognize and honor one of its nurses for her extraordinary patient care. Kaylee Griffin, R.N., a nurse on the Cardiovascular Unit, was one of many nurses nominated for the DAISY Award. A resident of Lincoln County, Kaylee has been caring for patients at EMRMC for nine months. 

A patient’s daughter nominated Kaylee for the care she provided at the end of her father’s life. The patient’s daughter said, “He woke briefly beyond that moment, during a time when his pain was not yet well controlled. Those images are ones I will carry forever – and they are what make our lifelong gratitude for one extraordinary soul even deeper. That soul showed up Sunday morning in the form of Nurse Kaylee. When she introduced herself to our dad, she called him Bob, the last sentence he ever spoke was to nurse Kaylee when he said – call me Bobby, the name his mother and grandmother had always used. From that moment on, she saw him not as a diagnosis or a room number, but as Bobby—a man deeply loved and deserving of dignity in his final days. Nurse Kaylee came with a background in hospice care, and it showed immediately. While every member of the cardiac care unit was among the kindest, most compassionate professionals we have ever encountered, caring not only for our dad but also for our family, Nurse Kaylee went far beyond the expectations of her role. She became Bobby’s champion. She did not wait for visible suffering to react. Even when our dad appeared to be resting comfortably, she proactively advocated with the physicians on call to ensure his comfort was maintained. She understood that peace, once achieved, must be protected. She set alarms on her own phone so his every-two-hour morphine doses were never delayed, refusing to allow him to slip back into pain simply because time had passed or the unit was busy. She fought for his comfort when he could no longer fight for himself. She honored his dignity and gave our family the gift of peace in his final days.”

Ephraim McDowell is proud to recognize nurses with the DAISY Award, a national program that honors the compassionate care and clinical excellence that nurses bring to their patients every day. Nomination forms for the DAISY Award are available at various locations throughout Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center, Ephraim McDowell Fort Logan Hospital, Ephraim McDowell James B. Haggin Hospital and other Ephraim McDowell facilities.