Berkeley Medical Center announces DAISY Award winner

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. – WVU Medicine Berkeley Medical Center’s Nurse Work Life Council named Joan DiTonto, R.N., as recipient of the DAISY Award For Extraordinary Nurses for the third quarter 2017.

The award was presented to DiTonto, a perinatal nurse, during a recent ceremony at the medical center. She received a certificate along with a sculpture called "A Healer’s Touch," hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Africa.  

Daisy Honorable Mention recipient for the third quarter was Lynette Dalton, R.N., cardiovascular services/cardiac cath lab.

The DAISY award was established nationally to recognize the super-human efforts nurses perform every day. Nurses at WVU Medicine Berkeley Medical Center and Jefferson Medical Center are being honored throughout the year with the DAISY Award. The awards are sponsored by the University Healthcare Foundation.  

The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, California, and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes, who died in late 1999 at the age of 33 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), an auto-immune disease.  

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.