The MUSC DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Award winner for May is Amy Dugan, R.N., NSICU. The following is Dugan's nomination letter, submitted by Cheryl Holderfield, manager of NSICU.

Registered nurse Amy Dugan, third from right, accepts the May Daisy Award. Helping her to celebrate her award is the NSICU staff.

"It was around 7 p.m. on a Saturday when the MUSC fire alarm went off and the staff thought it was just another fire drill. As it turned out smoke began to filter through the vents and began to irritate staff and patients causing them to cough. As the staff was preparing for shift change, it became obvious that the patients would need to be evacuated to a safer location. As you can imagine being on the ninth floor with a fire just under you reported on the eighth floor, things could get panicky. Instead, staff on 9NSICU followed the fire evacuation plan and were able to safely move all of the patients to another area without a single incident. Amy was not the only staff that evening who did a wonderful job, but because so many of our team were off for another staff member's wedding, Amy ended up in charge for the first time. Amy will always remember her first night as charge, especially since the patients were relocated to the PACU area where supplies and equipment were different for staff. The primary reason that I am submitting Amy as a Daisy Award winner was not because she was in charge for the first time, in a new location, during a fire and patient evacuation, but because before her shift ended she had written a long email recognizing and thanking everyone for their help during the night. As you can guess, I am very proud of Amy and my entire team. I am not sure if I would have thought to write such a nice email to thank people for their help as Amy did."

The award for nurses is a monthly award and is part of the DAISY Foundation's program to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day. The foundation was formed in January 2000 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes who died of complications of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.

All award winners receive an African Shona Tribe sculpture titled, "A Healer's Touch," a certificate, and a DAISY Award pin. The DAISY Foundation also delivered cinnamon rolls to all the nurses in each winner's unit.

MUSC is among 400 medical facilities honoring nurses with the DAISY Award. This is one initiative of the foundation whose overall goal is to help fight diseases of the immune system.

To nominate a nurse, visit https://www.musc.edu/medcenter/formstoolbox/DaisyAward/index.htm. To see more on the DAISY Foundation, visit http://www.daisyfoundation.org.