AHOSKIE – Kasey Pearce, RN, Patient Care Manager, recently received Vidant Health’s and Roanoke-Chowan’s first ever DAISY Nurse Leader Award.

Members of her family and VRCH team members were present to be part of the surprise and to celebrate with her.

The DAISY Foundation is an international program recognizing exceptional clinical expertise, compassion and extraordinary care provided by nurses.

The DAISY Foundation was co-founded in 1999 by Tena and Bonnie Barnes in memory of their husband and son, Patrick Barnes. During his illness, and subsequent death at the young age of 33, Patrick’s family witnessed the incredibly compassionate care of the nurses that cared for him.

Each DAISY recipient receives a sculpture called A Healer’s Touch, which is hand-carved for the DAISY Foundation by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe. The Foundation chose this beautiful design not only because it so sensitively depicts the unique relationship nurses have with their patients, but also because the Shona people hold their healers in a position of great importance to the community and feel about their traditional healers the way The DAISY Foundation and Vidant Health feel about nurses.

Vidant Roanoke-Chowan Hospital is a mission-driven, 114-bed community hospital that serves a population of 44,000 residents of the four-county Roanoke-Chowan area. The not-for-profit hospital is affiliated with Vidant Health that serves the 29-county area of Eastern North Carolina and Vidant Medical Group, a multi-specialty physician and provider group.

Vidant Health is affiliated with The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. As a major resource for health services and education, Vidant has a mission to improve the health and well-being of eastern North Carolina.

For more information, visit www.vidanthealth.