ICU Nurse, Blake Aubuschon, Recognized with The Daisy Award
EXTRAORDINARY NURSE RECOGNIZED AT ANDERSON HOSPITAL
January 22, 2025 (Maryville, IL) – Intensive Care Unit’s, Blake Aubuschon, RN, of Anderson Hospital was recently honored with The DAISY Award® For Extraordinary Nurses. The award is part of the DAISY Foundation's programs to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day.
The nomination submitted read:
“During the critical care transfer of a patient, Blake demonstrated exemplary actions that truly went above and beyond what was required for the betterment of his patient. Blake was assigned a critically ill patient that was on numerous IV drips, ventilator, and an intra-aortic balloon pump. This patient required additional life-saving interventions at a higher level of care facility and thus was needing to be transferred. My air medical helicopter was dispatched for the transport and the typical interfacility transfer usually entails the sending nurse giving report, paperwork, and then walking away leaving us, the flight crew, to do all necessary interventions with little to no additional assistance. Blake was the exception to this and from the moment we arrived to the unit to the time we were lifting off the helipad to head to the next facility, he was there assisting my partner and I the whole time. After Blake gave bedside report, he aided us with providing additional input to the complex care of this patient, aiding with IV drip and ventilator management, providing extra medications in case we ran out during the transport, being hands on for the moving of the patient, and even coming out to the helipad in frigid weather with no coat on to help load the patient and the cumbersome IABP into the helicopter. Those were just a small portion of the highlights of his assistance in this case. Best yet, he did all this without being asked and maintained a positive, calming attitude throughout the whole ordeal while tensions were high due to the severity of this patient’s condition. I’ve been doing flight nursing for a number of years now and have never had such a positive experience with a nurse at a sending facility. It was like having an additional member to the flight team and for all his actions and behavior, I want to give him recognition with this nomination.”
The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, CA, and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.
Said Bonnie Barnes, FAAN, Doctor of Humane Letters (h.c) and Co-Founder of The DAISY Foundation, "When Patrick was critically ill, our family experienced first-hand the remarkable skill and care nurses provide patients every day and night. Yet these unsung heroes are seldom recognized for the super-human work they do. The kind of work the nurses at Anderson Hospitalare called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award.”
