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Taunton Nurse Recognized with DAISY Award

Release Date: 05/10/2016

Women & Infants Hospital recently presented Taunton resident Heather Coelho, RN, a Breast Health Center nurse, with this month’s DAISY Award. The award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s program to recognize the above and beyond efforts performed by nurses every day.

In nominating Heather for this honor, many patients noted common themes such as her compassion, calmness and professionalism. One patient wrote, “Heather always checked with my oncologist and/or surgeon when I had questions that were beyond her realm of expertise. She made me feel like I was her only patient, which I knew I wasn’t.”

Additionally, she wrote, “I respect and trust her advice because I know she is knowledgeable and has my best interests at heart.”

Another breast cancer patient recalled a time when Heather went above and beyond to get her MRI results after many anxiety-filled days of waiting to hear back. “Had she not been so caring and proactive, I would have probably had to wait several more trying days for results,” the patient said. “Heather showed tremendous compassion towards my plight, and it helped me enormously!”

Heather has been a nurse with Women & Infants for 15 years.

The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, CA, and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.

Said Bonnie Barnes, president and co-founder of the DAISY foundation, “When Patrick was critically ill, our family experienced first-hand the remarkable skill and care nurses provide patients every day and night. Yet these unsung heroes are seldom recognized for the super-human work they do. The kind of work the nurses at Women & Infants Hospital are called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award.”

If you would like to nominate an extraordinary nurse that you encountered at any Women & Infants affiliated location or the main hospital, you can submit an application online or in person. Fellow providers and patients may nominate a nurse for the award.

 

About Women & Infants Hospital 

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the 9th largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country and the largest in New England with approximately 8,500 deliveries per year. A Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital, U.S.News & World Report 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospital in Neonatology and a 2014 Leapfrog Top Hospital, in 2009 Women & Infants opened what was at the time the country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.

Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation’s first mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation’s only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.

Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group and the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.