Atlantic, IA – Officials with Cass Health report Registered Nurse Brooke Dreager was honored with the DAISY Award this week. Dreager has worked at Cass Health since September 2014. Initially a nurse on the Inpatient Services team, she transitioned to the Obstetrics Unit in January 2015. She says “When I was doing my clinicals in nursing school, seeing a baby born, it just felt like the right path for me. Everything that has to come together for a baby to be born – it’s truly a miracle. OB is very much my happy place.”

Cass Health Chief Operating Officer Amanda Bireline commented, “For Brooke, it was not a matter of if, but rather when she would become a DAISY nurse. The nomination story that earned Brooke this award captures the kind of experience that Brooke creates for every patient, every time.”

Brooke Dreager, RN (Photo courtesy CCHS)

Dreager’s nominator wrote: “Brooke was with me from the moment I walked in the hospital to the last day of my 5 day stay after my natural birth turned into a c-section. This was my first baby so I was scared, anxious, and everything in between. Brooke checked on me daily, even when she wasn’t on that day. Brooke was my nurse during my attempt at a natural birth, she stayed for 3 hours talking me though pushing and breathing. She was supposed to be off at 7:00pm that day but she stayed with me through my c-section and she was the only way I was going to get my through my birth experience. She talked me through everything and every step of the way. Brooke was the most amazing nurse to have on my case and I would go back to Cass to have my next child all because of Brooke. She was so supportive to my husband and me; first time mom after major surgery and first time dad who was scared and anxious. If we didn’t have a named picked out already, our daughter would’ve been named Brooke – that’s how much Brooke means to our family.”

Dreager said, “I love my job. It means so much to even be nominated, just knowing that someone has thought about you after you’ve provided care to them. I always want to provide the best possible care, to give my patients the best possible experience. Giving birth can be one of the happiest and scariest days, and things don’t always go as planned. Knowing that you took something scary and unknown and helped your patient through that and made it better for them, that’s why I’m here. It makes me realize that I’m doing the right thing with my life.”

Nurses at Cass Health are honored twice annually with 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. The DAISY Award committee at Cass Health wishes to thank all nominators for their submissions. Each nurse who was nominated will be presented with a special pin and a copy of the nomination.

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.

More information is available at http://DAISYfoundation.org. An online nomination form is available at https://www.casshealth.org/daisy.