POTSDAM -- Two Canton-Potsdam Hospital registered nurses have been recognized with the first Canton-Potsdam Hospital DAISY Awards for excellence in nursing.

Anna M. Green, RN, care coordinator in the rheumatology practice at the St. Lawrence Health System Medical Campus in Canton, and Kelly J. Recore, a nurse on a medical/surgical unit of the main hospital campus in Potsdam, are the inaugural DAISY awardees.

Green is a member of the Rheumatology Nurses Society and has been with Canton-Potsdam Hospital since April 2014. She is a graduate of SUNY Canton.

Recore is nationally certified in the specialty of medical surgical nursing. She expects to graduate with a BSN degree from Western Governors University in the fall.

“We have an exceptional nursing staff and I couldn’t be prouder of the two individuals who have been selected to receive this prestigious DAISY Award,” said St. Lawrence Health System President and CEO David B. Acker of the parent of Canton-Potsdam Hospital. “Nurse Green and Nurse Recore are true professionals."

Green was nominated by a patient. The patient had been diagnosed with a rare chronic immune system disease at an early age.

The patient said she was dealing with an unusually high heart rate when “One time I had been battling some abnormally fast heart rate when “I could see that [Green] was extremely concerned, a bit scared, but remained calm and was able to get me in to see my primary doctor within that same hour. She really took good care of me that particular day and even checked in on me later on,” the patient noted.

The patient also revealed that depression associated with her disease had brought her close to thoughts of suicide. The patient said she called Green and this “amazing woman got me to calm down and to start to think clearly again. She is my hero.”

Three experienced colleagues of Kelly Recore submitted nominations. Among them was the story of one Mother’s Day, during which the unit experienced “an arduous night” with “more admissions than usual and multiple emergent situations at once,” Recore’s colleague wrote.

“I remember that she had a challenging post-operative patient,” her colleague said. She took the time to attend to two other admissions as well as to “sit with [the post-operative patient], alleviate his stress, and help him cope” so the medications he was receiving could do their work. The colleague goes on to note that, amid the stress of this challenging experience, home-made Mother’s Day cards began appearing on the tray tables of every patient “mom” in the unit. The colleague discovered that Nurse Recore had made the cards on her day off and had distributed them. “Kelly can care for any of my family members, any day of the year,” the colleague added.

DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System and was established by the DAISY Foundation in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. His parents established the foundation in their son’s memory because they said they had experienced firsthand the skills and compassionate care of many nurses.

“At CPH, the Award is given to a nurse (or this year, two nurses) who personify our patients’ remarkable experience,” said Jan Carroll, medical staff member.

“This means exemplifying the very best standards of professional nursing: compassion, teamwork, persistent patient advocacy, community awareness, timely, informative, and therapeutic communication, and adherence to the highest clinical and ethical standards of the field,” she added. “It was a difficult selection process because we have many nurses who excel in their profession,” she said.

The 2017 DAISY Awardees were chosen from among 57 nominations of 42 individuals submitted by peers, patients, families, and members of the community.

Anyone may nominate an exceptional nurse for the DAISY Award. For more information and to submit a nomination for the 2018 DAISY Award, interested individuals may visithttps://www.cphospital.org/DAISY-nursing-excellence-awards.