Sessoms Wins DAISY Award

ELIZABETHTOWN – Audra Sessoms, RN, has won Cape Fear Valley Health’s Daisy Award for Extraordinary Nurses.

Sessoms, a Surgical Services Nurse at Bladen County Hospital, won for going above and beyond to help an outpatient admitted to another facility. The patient suffers from a chronic condition that requires medication and therapy the patient was denied at the new facility.

The patient’s family contacted Sessoms and pleaded for her to intervene because they feared for the patient’s health and safety. Sessoms agreed and contacted the patient’s new physician to explain the situation.

The patient’s treatment was eventually changed and Sessoms continued to follow up with the patient and her family to ensure she was OK.

For her efforts, Sessoms was presented a commemorative DAISY award, a hand-made figurine from Africa, and enough Cinnabon cinnamon rolls for her unit.

The Daisy Award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s program to recognize extraordinary efforts nurses perform everyday. The not-for-profit organization is based in Glen Ellen, Calif., and was established by family members of the late J. Patrick Barnes. The 33-year-old died in 1999 from a little-known autoimmune disease called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura.

Barnes requested Cinnobon cinnamon rolls for him and his nurses shortly before his death to thank his caregivers for their efforts. With the help of Cinnabon’s parent company, FOCUS Brands, the Daisy Foundation carries on this tradition by serving Cinnabons to all the nurses in a winning nurse’s unit.