Excellence, integrity and compassion are Walter Reed’s values, and the medical center’s nursing team exhibits these qualities day in and day out.

Walter Reed regularly recognizes its nursing team members with the DAISY Award, celebrating the extraordinary clinical skills and compassionate care they deliver daily.

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Jakob Jackson, who works on 3 Center in the hospital, is Walter Reed’s most recent DAISY Award recipient. A staff physician nominated Jackson for the award stating that Jackson’s clinical skills, and especially his compassionate care, exemplify “the kind of nurse that our patients, their families and our staff recognize as an outstanding role model. He consistently demonstrates teamwork and mentoring, patient advocacy, professionalism, commitment, and exceptional care.”

The physician added that Jackson particularly showed these qualities during the recent care of a patient. “He frequently visited the patient, who was without family visitors, ensuring the patient’s pain and discomfort were well controlled. I observed him caring for the patient medically and emotionally…going above and beyond the regular duties of his job,” the physician stated.

U.S. Army Col. Maria Pescatore, director for nursing services at Walter Reed, presented Jackson the DAISY Award with his team members on hand. In addition to commending Jackson, Pescatore saluted the entire nursing team stating, “It’s phenomenal to be able to recognize our nursing team members for the work that they do on a daily basis. Your incredible work helps drive patients to come to Walter Reed for the amazing, quality care we deliver here,” she said.

Jackson explained that he’s always been interested in medicine and chose to become a nurse for its patient interaction. “I’m there for the good and the bad,” he said. “My comfort care patients have been the most rewarding. I find it rewarding being someone who they can look to, even if it’s to just sit and listen when there is nothing to fix,” he added.

The DAISY Award was established by the family of J. Patrick Barnes after his death from an autoimmune disease, Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), at the age of 33 in late 1999 in Seattle, Washington. DAISY stands for Diseases Attacking the Immune System. More than 2,600 health care facilities across the United States and 15 other countries participate in the DAISY Award program.

Anyone, including patients, families, and fellow health care staff, can nominate a nurse who has made a difference through their compassion and skilled care for the DAISY Award at Walter Reed. For more information, email joan.m.loepker.civ@health.mil.