Nardos Bayu, a nurse in the Medical Step-Down Unit of ECU Health North, has been honored with the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. 

This award recognizes nurses who provide exceptional, compassionate, and skillful care — qualities the hospital says she exemplifies in her daily work and in the nomination submitted on her behalf.

Nardos was nominated by the family of a 99-year-old patient who was admitted on August 16 after suffering a fall resulting in a broken pelvis. “Throughout the patient’s stay, Nardos’s kindness, attentiveness, and professionalism left a lasting impression on both the patient and her family,” ECU North said.

“One of the nurses caught my attention because she was really very nice and friendly and always greeted us with a smile,” the patient’s daughter said in the nomination letter. “When spending nights with my mom, I noticed that when Nardos Bayu was working, she treated her with so much respect. If there was something that needed to be done, she did it and always made sure I was comfortable as well.”

The daughter wrote that, “If my mom’s machine went off, she came into the room to make sure the problem was fixed. My mom is 99-years-old, and Nardos treated her very well. I think she deserves to win the extraordinary nurse award. She deserves a raise in her pay. I want to thank her for her kindness and always smiling even when she didn’t want to because my mom was a handful.”

The DAISY Award is an international recognition program that honors the extraordinary clinical skill and compassionate care nurses provide every day. “Nardos’s dedication to going above and beyond embodies the spirit of the DAISY Foundation and reflects the exceptional quality of care provided across ECU Health.”

Andrea Chivers, VP of Patient Services, said, “We are immensely proud of Nardos' unwavering dedication and meticulous attention to detail in her work at North. Her actions truly exemplify the ECU values that foster high-reliable, people-centered care. Her compassion, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to her patients truly embody the mission and values of our organization.”