GCRC Nurse Wins DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses

Described as a "true team player, a positive role model who exhibits excellent communication skills and a professional who is consistently caring and compassionate," Jocelia Adams, RN, is the July winner of the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. A clinical nurse in the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC), Adams has been a member of the nursing staff for the past two years. She holds oncology nurse clinician certification and is the founder and past clinical director of the Center for Caregiver Training in San Francisco. "Jocelia is one of those extraordinary nurses who compassionately gives of herself at work, in her community and to others, whenever she is needed," wrote a nominator. Adams has provided a home skills training course for family caregivers of persons with HIV disease, cancer, emphysema and congestive heart failure. She also has developed an additional 12-hour course, in collaboration with the National Brain Tumor Foundation, for family caregivers of persons with brain tumors.

Jocelia Adams, RN, center, is the July winner of the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses.

Adams is currently consulting with the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine in developing the "Caregiver Manual" and will provide teaching services to "train the trainer" for the caregiver group. Adams has received prestigious nursing awards, including the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Award and the Rosalyn Carter Caregiving Award, and has been honored by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown with a "Celi Adams Day" in San Francisco for her community service. According to a nominator, "[Jocelia] establishes a wonderful rapport with patients and families. She is an outstanding teacher and is highly respected by all members of the health care team. This was most recently demonstrated by the special connection she established with the wife of a complex patient with malignant large cell lymphoma. "The nursing care she provided to this patient and the teaching she conducted with his wife was excellent. This patient was suffering from chronic pain, sleep apnea, depression, with uncontrolled fevers despite antibiotic therapy. This patient had been admitted to 12 Moffitt for participation in a research protocol with repeated admissions for an intravenous investigational chemotherapy drug. His wife was exhausted; all resources depleted, and extremely worried about how she would be able to cope with the complex home care demands her husband's condition required. Jocelia was pivotal in providing support, teaching and planning for his home care." The award is part of the DAISY Foundation's program to recognize the "superhuman efforts nurses perform every day." The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation, based in Glen Ellen, CA, was established by J. Mark Barnes and his family in memory of his son J. Patrick Barnes, who died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of idiopathic thrombocytopeniz purpura or ITP, a little-known but not uncommon autoimmune disease. The UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Children's Hospital are among 25 hospitals nationwide participating in the program, which issues a monthly award for extraordinary nurses at each hospital. For more information or to nominate a nurse for the DAISY Award, contact Catherine Wittenberg, CNM, MS, director of nursing, UCSF Medical Center, at 415/353-2717 or via email. Links: DAISY Foundation