AONE Collaboration Kick-Started 1 Million DAISY Nominations

Nearly 19 years have passed since our son Patrick died of complications of idiopathic thrombocytopenia, an autoimmune disease, and we created The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. AONE has played an important role in our journey-a journey that has brought a meaningful recognition program dedicated to nurses to over 3,200 health care facilities and schools of nursing, throughout the United States and in 18 other countries. This is a story of collaboration between a grieving family and a professional organization that was the first organization to help us see the value in a concept we designed to say thank you to nurses for the extraordinary care we experienced during our Patrick's 8-week hospitalization in late 1999. Today, 30 professional associations support our work. But it was AONE who first provided the guidance of nursing leadership to make our vision a reality. Their support in our early years, when we really needed help, boosted this work and brought DAISY to light for the entire nursing profession.