Nurse who’s worked for John J. Pershing VA Medical Center for 25 years receives Daisy Award

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (KBSI) – LPN from John J. Pershing VA Medical Center receives Daisy Award.

Daniel Anderson is a licensed practical nurse at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center’s main campus in Poplar Bluff and has been recognized as the latest recipient of The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses.

The award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s mission to recognize the extraordinary, compassionate nursing care they provide patients and families every day.

Anderson was nominated for the DAISY Award by a pair of employees on a different unit of the facility. The first said he is “a perfect example of what a DAISY Award recipient should be. He is the hardest working individual I have ever had the pleasure of working with, and that is an understatement.”

Anderson has worked at the VA medical center for 25 years, the first in the Specialty Care clinic and the last 24 in the Primary Care clinic.

“I was very surprised … I had no clue,” said Anderson of the recognition, presented by Interim Associate Director for Patient Care Services, Jamie Crawford. “I’m humbled by it. However, I do think there are other deserving people as well, and I’m just doing my job taking care of Veterans.”

Anderson feels a close connection to the Veterans he serves, in large part because he himself served in the U.S. Air Force. “I love taking care of people, and I love the people I take care of,” he said. “I treat them like family because, for me, they are family. It’s not just because I care for them, but they are my military family, too.”

The award included a sculpture called The Healer’s Touch.  Hand-carved by artists in Zimbabwe, each piece is signed by one of the many Shona artists that The DAISY Foundation supports. “The economy and politics of Zimbabwe have been in turmoil for decades, and the artists are able to support hundreds of people in their families with this work,” according to the DAISY Foundation.

The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, by members of his family. 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. (DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System.) 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.