Forrest General Welcomes DAISY Award Co-Founder to Present Special Award
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – (April 8, 2025) Five years ago this month, Forrest Health named its inaugural DAISY Award recipient. Since then, more than 55 Forrest Health nurses or nursing groups have been recognized and hundreds more nominated for this award that celebrates and rewards nurses, nurse leaders, and nursing teams for extraordinary and compassionate care, and excellent clinical skills.
On April 4, Tena Barnes Carraher, the widow of Patrick Barnes, who is one of the co-founders of The DAISY Award®, was a guest at Forrest General Hospital to bestow a special DAISY Award upon deserving Forrest Health recipient, Betty Bly Hatten, RN. Joining Carraher was Forrest Healthl’s first DAISY recipient, Ashley Harris, LPN, Forrest Health administration, nursing leaders, and other staff. Barnes was also in Hattiesburg to take part in this year’s Hattiesburg Half Marathon alongside Forrest General Vice President, CNO, Kim Reddish, RN, MSN, CENP, CCRN (alum).
During the program, Betty Bly Hatten, RN, who recently retired, was recognized for her 42 years as a nurse in the FGH Emergency Department, and was honored with a DAISY Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is given to those nurses who have devoted their life’s work to the compassionate care of others. This was the first such award presented to a Forrest Health nurse.
Suzanne Wilson, director of Emergency Services/Transfer Center, described Hatten as “a remarkable individual” for the Daisy Lifetime Achievement Award. “These words don’t come close to describing the full scale of just how remarkable of not only a nurse, but a person, Mrs. Betty Bly truly is,” Wilson said.
“Throughout these four decades, Mrs. Betty Bly has not just been a nurse; she has been a beacon of hope, compassion, and dedication for patients, coworkers, and our entire community. From the moment she stepped through the doors of Forrest General, she brought not just her skills, but her heart. She has touched countless lives with her genuine care and unwavering commitment to serving others.
Mrs. Betty Bly’s passion for patient care is unmatched. Her heart is as big as her skill set, and her patients are not just numbers, they are people — people she takes the time to truly understand. Mrs. Betty Bly listens. She comforts. She advocates. She is the voice of compassion for each person who walks through the door, offering not just medical care, but emotional and spiritual support, as well.
In addition to her work at Forrest General, Mrs. Betty Bly’s kindness extends far beyond our hospital walls. Since 2005, she has completed multiple mission trips to Honduras, where she has served those in desperate need, bringing both medical care and compassion to those who are often overlooked. Her mission work exemplifies her servant’s heart, always giving without expectation and helping where help is most needed.
Mrs. Betty Bly’s selflessness and dedication have not gone unnoticed. She has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Phillip Rogers Award, which recognizes excellence in healthcare, the Kindness in Action award, and was named Nurse of the Year in 2021. These accolades are just a few of the many honors she has earned for her tireless work and commitment to improving the lives of others.
Beyond her direct work with patients, Betty Bly has been a true advocate for the hospital and the community. She served on the Forrest General Healthcare Foundation Board and played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Asbury Hospice House, which has provided comfort and care for many in their most difficult times. Her leadership and vision have left an indelible mark on this institution, and the legacy she has built will continue to impact generations to come.
Through all of this, Mrs. Betty Bly has remained humble. She does not seek recognition, yet it is impossible not to acknowledge the profound affect she has had on all of us — as coworkers, as friends, and as members of this community. She is the kind of person we should all strive to be: kind, caring, selfless, and dedicated to improving the lives of those around her.
Mrs. Betty Bly’s 42 years of service have made a lasting difference, and we are all better for having worked alongside her. We are forever grateful for her unwavering dedication, generosity of spirit, and enduring commitment to the people she has served. She embodies everything it means to be a servant leader, and we are truly blessed to have had her as part of the Forrest General family in the Emergency Department.”
Because of the Barnes family’s commitment to establishing the DAISY Award and recognizing the outstanding contributions of nurses, we are able to recognize nurses such as Betty Bly Hatten, RN.
Following Bly’s award, Reddish introduced Carraher, who she met about a year-and-a-half ago, describing her as one of the “most down-to-earth people you will ever meet.” Carrahar, who serves as vice president of Marketing and Communications for The DAISY Foundation, told the DAISY story from the family’s point of view – why they started this foundation and why they are so passionate about nurse recognition.
Carrahar noted it had been 25 years this November since her then-husband, Patrick Barnes, passed away from complications of an auto-immune disease, ITB. As with most families they were devastated. Tena and Patrick were young and had just started their family. Their daughter was six weeks old when Patrick got sick and three months old when he passed away, much quicker than they thought he would.
“We knew right away we wanted to turn our grief into something positive,” Carrahar said. “We wanted to create something that would capture his very special spirit – very outgoing, personable, knew-no-strangers type of person.” The family started brainstorming to try and decide what they could do, given the outcome. “What was positive? Really, there wasn’t a whole lot of positive,” she said. “But we kept coming back to conversations about his nurses. We expected excellent clinical skills, given how sick he was. They were trying new things, but he was not getting better and declining every day. What we didn’t expect was the care and compassion the nurses brought him day-in and day-out, even when he was completely sedated, as well as the care and compassion they brought to us as a family. They took care of all of us. That was our compliment, let’s thank his nurses.”
And on Friday, that’s what Forrest Health was able to do through its presentation of the Lifetime DAISY Achievement Award to Hatten.
Carrahar mentioned all of this was 25 years ago when meaningful recognition was not a thing. “We just simply wanted to thank the nurses in both hospitals that took care of him,” she said. “But how?” They came up with the concept of the DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Award as a way for patients, families, coworkers, anyone, to not only thank their nurse(s), but to tell the stories about the difference they made that they will never forget. “We thought if we could get this program going in 10 to 15 hospitals, we would start feeling better and could start navigating what our life was going to be like without Patrick, and then as my father-in-law, Mark, liked to say, ‘Nurses got a hold of it.’ ” Nurses kept coming to them with ideas and word of mouth was spreading about the program to recognize nurses in a very public and meaningful way.
“Today, we partner with more than 7,000 healthcare organizations and schools of nursing across the United States and 43 other countries, so it’s become an international recognition program for nurses,” Carraher said. “We estimate more than 250K have received the award, and more than three million nominations have been submitted. I think that is a testament to this profession. If you think about it, people are quick with a complaint. If something is wrong, it’s ‘who do I talk to,’ ‘what can I fill out,’ ‘where is the manager,’ ‘I need someone to know’…something like that. But, this is when something goes good. And more than three million times a patient, a family member, a coworker has taken the time to write, handwrite, type, or scan a QR code and do on their phone because of something a nurse did and said and they wanted a way to say ‘thank you’ for it. They wanted other people to know the impact you had that they would never forget. It was a wonderful way to not only capture these stories of compassionate work, but to share these stories as well.”
For nominate a nurse for a DAISY Award, visit forresthealth.org/daisy.
