DAISY Award Highlights Family Centered Care

Media Contact: Karina Rusk
831-759-1843

August 26, 2022 – For every patient who receives exceptional care at Salinas Valley Health, there is generally a family who also benefits from the time and talents of Salinas Valley Health staff. Those connections are at the center of the latest DAISY Award celebration honoring Margarita Barrera, RN III in the Oncology Department.

One could say the prestigious award presented to Margarita was 35 years in the making. The DAISY Award recipient first joined the Salinas Valley Health family In August 1987 as an RN in the Labor & Delivery department. She spent just over a decade in L&D and then moved to the Oncology department where Margarita has been serving patients and families ever since.

"Margarita is an asset and deserves recognition for going beyond the line of duty while performing the difficult task of ministering physically and emotionally such vulnerable patients as my husband of 49 years,” reads the submission.

The nomination just happens to coincide with Margarita’s 35-year milestone anniversary at Salinas Valley Health and was submitted by a patient’s wife reflecting on the impact hospital staff has not only on patients, but also the undeniable connection with patient family members.

“Every institution has good professionals and others that excel at what they do,” wrote the patient’s wife. “My husband was in the comfort room with lymphoma and Margarita was working the night shift. As my husband entered the unit, Margarita greeted him warmly and then allowed me to cry on her shoulders as I was facing the worse night of my life. All through the night Margarita attended my husband’s needs with professionalism and loving care. She soothed our fears with kind words.”

In addition to Margarita, four other outstanding nurses received DAISY Award nominations in August including, Alyssa Alexander, RN III in L&D, Keely Amor, RN III in L&D, Norma Coyazo, RN III in L&D, and Guadalupe Garcia, RN II in Med Surg.