Hastings Receives DAISY Award

Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus Nurse Hannah Hastings has been a nurse for a little more than a year, and she’s made a significant difference with her patients. Hastings was named Bayhealth’s latest DAISY Award honoree for the compassion she showed a cancer patient in her final days.

The DAISY Award is a national recognition that honors the unsung heroes of the nursing profession. Hastings was nominated by her preceptor Megan Wentling after seeing Hastings care for a cancer patient and their family last year. The woman was tired of cancer getting the best of her, choosing to focus on the quality of her life rather than the number of days she had left. When the family realized the woman didn’t have much longer to live, Hastings along with her nursing unit, 4A, and the Cancer Center, helped organize an early high school graduation ceremony in the woman’s patient room so she could see her grandson graduate. Her actions moved the family so much that they thanked Bayhealth and especially Hastings in the woman’s obituary.

Hastings says it was her own experience losing her nephew to cancer that helped her provide care to this patient; it’s also why she decided to work on an oncology medical-surgical nursing unit. “That’s what made the situation with this patient so special to me. It was about a month after my nephew passed. I was better able to help the family because I had just gone through it. I sat there for hours in the room talking and crying with them. My experience helped me with them,” Hastings said.

Deciding to become a nurse happened by accident, Hastings said. She knew she wanted to help people, liked science and loved learning about health. She picked nursing on a whim and fell in love with it. “My nephew’s cancer diagnosis solidified nursing was for me. Being there for people, being able to love and care for them drives me,” Hastings said.

DAISY Award honorees are nominated by nurses, administrators, peers, physicians, volunteers, patients, and families. If you know a Bayhealth nurse who deserves to be nominated, visit DAISY and fill out the nomination form.