ANMC nurse Kim Tantanella earns DAISY Award
August 11, 2017
ANMC’s Magnet nurses provide culturally appropriate, family-centered care in a unique hospital environment, and they are constantly seeking ways to improve the services and care we provide. In an effort to further recognize our nurses for their outstanding work, ANMC partnered with the DAISY Award, an international program that rewards and celebrates the extraordinary clinical skill and compassionate care given by nurses every day.
Congratulations to ANMC DAISY Award recipient, Kim Tantanella, RN on ANMC’s fifth floor Medical-Surgical Unit. Tantanella was recognized at an award ceremony, where she was presented with a certificate, a DAISY Award pin and a hand-carved stone sculpture. Several nurses, colleagues and ANMC leadership attended the ceremony to show their appreciation and support for Tantanella, who was thankful for the recognition.
“It is an amazing honor and I can’t believe I got it!” said Tantanella. “I really appreciate my coworkers and my director for the amazing teamwork atmosphere on 5 West.”
Tantanella received two separate nominations from her fellow nurses for the DAISY award. They wrote the following about her: “Kim is always offering her help to other nurses. She is very compassionate toward staff and patients, always willing to take the time to stop and listen to patients and staff. Kim’s patients always receive the best care and she always goes above and beyond when it comes to patient care.”
“There is no one story that I could share that depicts Kim as a whole, rather her everyday actions speak volumes for her character. She is very knowledgeable and confident in the care she provides to her patients and fellow staff members. She never hesitates to offer a helping hand and you can feel her sincerity whenever you speak with her. Kim is proactive in her approach and provides care to the patients as a whole instead of focusing on their sicknesses. 5 West is very lucky to have Kim as a nurse and she deserves this extraordinary recognition!”
Tantanella is Yupi’k Eskimo from Akiachak and has worked at ANMC for nearly five years. She also worked as a nurse for our Tribal partner Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation for two years before moving to Anchorage.
“I love having the opportunity to serve the community I was born in along with other Alaska Native cultures,” added Tantanella.
The DAISY Foundation was established in 1999 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes, who died of complications of the autoimmune disease Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura. DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune SYstem.
Patients, their families and fellow ANMC staff can nominate nurses for DAISY Awards. Nomination forms and collection boxes have been placed throughout the ANMC hospital.
Subsequent honorees will be selected quarterly and each DAISY Award honoree will be recognized at a public ceremony in her or his unit or department. For more information about the DAISY Award program, please visit www.DAISYfoundation.org. For questions about nominating an ANMC nurse, please email Hannah Hooper at hehooper@anthc.org.