Home Health & Hospice Nurse Kyla Huntimer Receives DAISY Award

Today Brookings Health System honored Home Health & Hospice Nurse Kyla Huntimer, R.N., with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses®.

Huntimer was nominated by Sharon Hofland whose husband, Dean, was one of Huntimer’s hospice patients. 

“As Dean's wife and a retired professor in a graduate nursing program at SDSU, I am very aware of quality care,” Hofland wrote in her nomination. “Kyla provided information in a manner that was gentle, understandable, complete and accepting to Dean. Her words reflected a desire to understand what he was going through and the number of ways she and hospice could help, which lowered his stress level. She anticipated supplies, posted her contact number on the fridge and was so helpful to Dean and the family. Dean was very frightened of having pain and the possibility of nursing home placement. She explained the various methods that would be available and the continuity of her being available to help him wherever he was located. It was five weeks between diagnosis and death, and she provided the continuity of care needed for a patient receiving a life-ending situation. Her knowledge of, and desire to know, patient fears enabled her to be of comfort to him which helped him so much.”

Huntimer received a certificate commending her as an Extraordinary Nurse. She also received a DAISY Award pin and a sculpture called, A Healer’s Touch, hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe. 

Last year, Brookings Health announced it was partnering with the DAISY Foundation to recognize the health system’s nurses and the extraordinary, compassionate care they provide patients and families every day. Any licensed or registered nurse employed by Brookings Health System who is involved with direct patient or resident care may be nominated for The DAISY Award. Nurses may be nominated by patients, families, medical staff and fellow employees. Nominated nurses should have made a special connection with the patient and family, serve as a role model for the nurse profession, function as an integral member of the team, commit to the highest standards of clinical care and went above and beyond.

The DAISY Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, established in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, by members of his family. 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. DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System. 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.

Nominations for The DAISY Award are gathered year-round. Those wishing to nominate a Brookings Health System nurse may do so online at brookingshealth.org/DAISY.

About Brookings Health System

Brookings Health System, located in Brookings, South Dakota, includes a 49-bed hospital, the 79-bed The Neighborhoods at Brookview nursing home, Brookhaven Estates senior living apartments, Yorkshire Eye Clinic & Optical, and medical clinics in Arlington, White and Volga, South Dakota. It is a non-profit, municipal health system that offers the community a full range of inpatient, outpatient, emergency and extended care services. Brookings Hospital provides local access to doctors in Brookings and offers robotic da Vinci surgery and Mako robotic-arm assisted procedures, making it one of the premier rural community hospitals in South Dakota. For more information about the services offered at Brookings Health System, please call (605) 696-9000 or visit us on the Web at brookingshealth.org.