(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with Cass Health in Atlantic, today (Tuesday), announced that Michelle Phippen, LPN is the newest recipient of The DAISY Award, which celebrates excellence in nursing. Phippen became an LPN in 2012 and began working at Cass Health in November 2023. She works at Atlantic Medical Center with Family Medicine Physician Dr. Adam Verhoef.  Phippen was nominated by her coworker Clara Hagedorn, LPN who wrote a detailed nomination about Phippen’s dedication to help a non-English speaking patient through the hardships of her pregnancy, including providing education and care related to gestational diabetes.

Hagedorn wrote, “Having gestational diabetes brings additional tests, closer monitoring, and often medication to manage. For the patient, continuous glucose monitoring was required to help Dr. Verhoef be able to best treat her diabetes, and this included a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) being placed every 10 days in office. She also had to be started on insulin, which would require injections twice a day, and non-stress tests (NST) twice a week … Michelle was always comforting to the patient and always assured she understood what she would be doing. Overall, while there were multiple hardships for this patient, both discussed and not discussed in this story, it did not prevent Michelle from providing exceptional care for the patient. It was truly humbling to work alongside Michelle in the clinic, seeing the amount of time, care, compassion, and heart she shared with the patient throughout her pregnancy, and will continue to postpartum. I know I am not the only one who has noticed her efforts, and I hope she knows how appreciated and admired they were!”

Phippen said, “I’m honored to have been nominated for the award, and it’s not something I ever thought I would be considered for. This particular patient that I got nominated for has just been through a lot of struggles, and if I can help in any way to ease any of those struggles, I would try.”

Michelle Phippen, LPN (Photo submitted by CCHS)

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 care nurses provide to patients and families every day. The DAISY Award committee at Cass Health thanks 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.

This is one initiative of The DAISY Foundation to express gratitude to the nursing profession. Additionally, DAISY offers J. Patrick Barnes Grants for Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Projects, The DAISY Faculty Award to honor inspiring faculty members in schools and colleges of nursing, and The DAISY in Training Award for nursing students. More information is available at http://DAISYfoundation.org. An online nomination form is available at https://www.casshealth.org/daisy.