Jennifer Cavanaugh is shown with her NICU colleagues holding the signed DAISY Award banner.
Long Branch, NJ, March 31, 2022 – A Monmouth Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse who went above and beyond while caring for a young family in need of tremendous social support has been honored with the quarterly DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses®.
In nominating NICU nurse Jennifer Cavanaugh, BSN, RN, RNC-NIC, CBC, a colleague wrote:
Jennifer went above and beyond when caring for a patient whose mother was undecided about keeping her baby or putting her up for adoption. When the mother, an emancipated youth with very little social support, decided to keep the baby, Jen helped connect the new family with Michael’s Feet for donations of a car seat, stroller and crib, and started collection among the NICU staff to gather baby clothes, blankets and other items. She also provided lactation support and helped secure a free breast pump, and worked with Mother/Baby and Social Work staff to help get the needs of the mom and baby met. She is amazing and always ready to support her family. She showed this family true kindness and compassion, and provided an environment that fostered communication, openness and no judgement. She even went as far to drive to Buy Buy Baby to pick up the purchases for the family and assemble the stroller.
DAISY is an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System. The DAISY Foundation was formed by the family of Patrick Barnes who died at age 33 of complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), an auto-immune disease. His widow, Tena, (a DAISY Co-founder) created the acronym, and the Foundation and established the DAISY Recognition Program to honor the super-human work nurses do every day at the bedside.
CONTACT: Kathy Horan
(732) 546-6317
Kathy.Horan@rwjbh.org