HASTINGS — Mary Lanning Healthcare recognizes its many outstanding nurses in a variety of ways. Recently, one such nurse was honored for her many years of extraordinary care with the DAISY Award. Her experience was made even more special, though, because both of her daughters were able to attend the ceremony, and one of them has received the same award for her nursing service.
Jan Franzen, a long-time Mary Lanning Hospice nurse, was extremely pleased just to be nominated for the DAISY Award, and surprised when she was announced the winner.
But her daughter, Jody Castrillon of Denver, said she wasn’t surprised her mother won.
“She (Franzen) just loves so much what she does,” Castrillon said. “It’s almost like a ministry to her, the way she can really touch people’s lives.”
Castrillon, who received the DAISY Award in 2011 for her work in the Emergency Department at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, said she has always admired the way her mother supports others.
“Just the way she cares, she really just takes the patient right where they are,” she said. “That’s part of the reason patients respond and feel comfortable with her. They don’t have to put on a show or be someone else. She sees them as more than their illness.”
Franzen’s nomination by a patient’s family reflects the same opinion:
“When my brother was on hospice care, this nurse showed extraordinary loving care for him. He was inflicted with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and he was often irritated, combative and verbally abusive! Even so, she showed a special gift that she has of calming him and having wonderful conversations with him. She was always able to make him feel better about himself! It appears to me that she loves her job working with hospice care patients. She showed a super skill in conversing with him! This nurse is a super caring person! My highest regards for this nurse and the Mary Lanning Hospice program!”
Castrillon said she always thought it was special that she and her mom shared being nurses. So she was really happy her mother received the same award.