Maryville maternity nurse honored with The DAISY Award

Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville’s Leah Gard, RN, maternity, was honored with The DAISY® Award for Extraordinary Nurses on August 1.

The award is part of The DAISY Foundation’s programs to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day.

Gard was recognized by a fellow caregiver for assisting first-time parents who brought their newborn to the emergency department. Her nomination reads:

“We had a 48-hour-old baby in the emergency department (ED). This baby had been delivered elsewhere and discharged because the parents were told ‘everything looks great on the post-partum screenings.’ They were first time parents, and severely under-educated by the previous hospital. The parents were obviously sleep deprived from having a newborn and didn’t get more than four hours of sleep the previous night. As new parents, they were very unsure if what they are doing is correct. The baby is formula-fed and the parents stated she has not been eating very well. I was able to answer a good number of their questions but besides my personal experience with my two boys, I was not much help with further education. When I called and began asking questions, Leah offered to come over to the ED and help. She went right into the patient’s room and began building a rapport with the parents. One of the main concerns the parents had was feeding, this was secondary to the concern that brought them to the ED. They had a bottle and Leah noticed the nipple on the bottle was stiff and not the correct size. She gave them a few sizes we had here to try. The baby ate the whole bottle, and it was more than what they were eating at home. She sat in there and gave them tips and tricks during the whole feed, educating them about the need to keep the child awake because they will try to fall asleep, where their rooting reflex is, and a lot more. The parents came in here scared, nervous and crying and they left confident in their ability to provide nutrition to their child and what to do if they were having issues. She assured them they can always call us, and the maternity, if they ever have any questions or concerns, and we would be willing to help.

“This is not the first time Leah has been of great help to us and I am sure this will not be the last. I know one of our ER nurses with a lot of experience in pediatrics (NICU) gives praise to how well Leah handles tough/critical situations overnight with the pediatric patients. She is a great nurse, and an even better coworker. We are lucky to have her.”