Kristen Deal Honored With DAISY Award

Kristen Deal, BSN, RN, of Christiana Hospital’s Labor and Delivery team, received the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses in April. A Labor and Delivery nurse for 12 years, Deal is passionate about caring for families and their new additions.

Deal earned trust, respect and a DAISY nomination for her compassionate, holistic care of a patient, her husband and their unborn triplets. The nomination, from the mom-to-be who spent eight days in the hospital awaiting the arrival of her babies, described Deal as a patient and kind caregiver, resource and advocate.

Deal acted as a skilled clinician, cheerleader and support person when the patient was experiencing clinical changes in a high-risk pregnancy that required continuous monitoring of her babies, laboratory tests, scans, and transport for specialty care.

When an urgent cesarean section was needed for the premature triplets, Deal carried out her work thoroughly and gracefully, remembering the smallest details of conversations with her patient to help calm her nerves and ease the tension of this life-changing experience.

“Kristen helped capture memories in the operating room and shared in the controlled chaos and beautiful delivery of my identical triplet boys,” wrote Jennifer Schulak, also a ChristianaCare nurse, in her nomination.

“She still checks in on me and how the boys are doing and will always hold a very special place in my heart,” Schulak wrote.

“Thank you to Kristen and the Labor and Delivery and Neonatal Intensive Care teams for serving together and keeping my family and me safe.”

The Professional Nurse Council at ChristianaCare selects DAISY Award recipients using an anonymous process based on nominations from patients, families and all members of the ChristianaCare team. All nurses — inpatient, outpatient and ChristianaCare HomeHealth — are eligible.