Musgrave receives prestigious nursing award

Bothwell Regional Health Center recently presented its latest DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses to Kylie Musgrave.

The DAISY Award is for patients and their families to nominate nurses who give outstanding, compassionate and skillful care. Musgrave is a Registered Nurse and works in the hospital’s Progressive Care Unit (PCU); she was nominated by a patient who was hospitalized for a serious heart condition.

“On the day we met, my nurse was steadfast and strong in her mission,” the patient wrote. “I realized my nurse took her role as caregiver very seriously. She took the time to explain my tests and treatment plan. I have never found anyone more dedicated to their job.”

Musgrave has worked at Bothwell since 2016, beginning as a dietary aide before becoming a Certified Nurse Assistant. She went on to nursing school, joined as a nurse intern in 2021 after earning her Licensed Practical Nursing certification and transitioned to working as a Registered Nurse in 2022. She has more recently taken on a charge nurse role in PCU. She said her mother, also a nurse, played a significant role in shaping her approach to patient care.

“I pursued nursing because I wanted to be able to help people when they needed it most,” Musgrave said. “It was my mom, who is also a nurse, who helped shape me in how I want to be as a nurse and how I want to care for my patients.”

For Musgrave, the most rewarding part of nursing is seeing the direct impact of her care.

“The most rewarding aspect of my career is being able to see the difference I make in the care I give my patients,” she said. “Whether that is small, subtle changes or big ones after administering medications and caring for patients after several days – being able to see the changes and watch the progress the patients are making is very rewarding.”

She said the experience with the patient who nominated her was a meaningful one.

“When I first got him during my first stretch of days working, he was very ill,” Musgrave said. “I spent a lot of time caring for him, as he was my most critical patient that day. Over the next few days, we were able to joke around with each other as his condition began improving.”

Musgrave was presented with a certificate congratulating her for being an “Extraordinary Nurse.” She also received a box of cinnamon rolls, a daisy bouquet, a DAISY Award pin and a sculpture called “A Healer’s Touch,” hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Africa. A DAISY Award banner recognizing her will hang in PCU and Musgrave’s name will appear on the DAISY Foundation website.

The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses was started in 1999 in Glen Ellen, California, by members of the family of Patrick Barnes, who died at the age of 33 of complications from an autoimmune disease. The care his nurses provided was the inspiration for the DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Award.

An international award, the DAISY is awarded in more than 6,000 health care facilities and schools of nursing around the world, including 39 countries and territories. Bothwell Regional Health Center began recognizing its nurses with the DAISY Award in 2018. Jessica Wheeler, Shari Thomasson, Shasta Nardi, Courtney Rumans, Sarah Plante, Connie Roll, Ronda McMullin, Sarah Fredrickson, Sherri Egbert, Leslie Shapley, Seth Stotts, Stacey Nassar, Helen Fisher, Donna Cline, Linda Lower, Sarah Cordes, Reilly O’Shea, Heather Kaneko, Jenice Serrano, Emma Stone, Mattie Mergen, Patty King and Charli Carl are previous recipients. 

To learn more or to submit a nomination, visit brhc.org/daisy.