An ER nurse in the Olympic Medical Center’s Emergency Department has been presented with an award for her compassionate care of a frightened little 7 year-old girl who been brought to the ER for emergency care. Mallary Morris was presented with the hospital’s DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System. It was created as a unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.

Morris was nominated for the award after the mother of the frightened girl wrote that her daughter ended up in the emergency room on one of the busiest night she has ever seen at the hospital. The mother is, herself, a hospital employee.  She says her daughter was nervous about an IV.  Nurse Morris, described as quiet and relaxed every time she entered the room in the midst of the busyness, made the quick decision to show the child how the IV process would go using the beanie baby bear her daughter had with her. When it was time to remove the IV, she once again used the process with her bear to show how it worked, making her daughter so calm she didn’t even flinch.  The mother wrote, “It was a game changer.  I cannot thank Mallary enough for the care and compassion she showed my child.”  She also wrote that she and her husband are no strangers to the hospital – they both work for OMC and her family has had to visit the ER on more than one occasion.  “Mallary,” she said, was by far the most amazing nurse we have ever met.”