DOVER — Bayhealth’s latest DAISY Award recipient is Elisabeth Cote, BSN, RN, a Progressive Care Unit nurse. She was nominated by a coworker who recognized Ms. Cote for her work ethic and compassionate care of patients.
Nursing is a second career for Ms. Cote. Now in her fourth year at Bayhealth’s Kent Campus, Cote’ has no regrets about leaving banking and going back to school as the mother of three young children.

Ms. Cote was nominated by a coworker, another nurse, who wrote, “I am very blessed to have the opportunity to work alongside this phenomenal nurse. Lis personifies the essence of the DAISY Award.”

The nomination also describes Cote’s passion. “She works tirelessly to provide optimal care to every patient, support her colleagues, comfort patients and their families while taking the initiative to implement unit-wide, evidence-based research interventions to optimize patient outcomes.”
Ms. Cote, whose patients are often critically ill and nearing the end of their life, said her nursing career took a turn when a hospice patient on the unit experienced respiratory distress. “It was awful and traumatizing for him and his family,” she said.

Shortly thereafter, she attended a conference where she learned more about the Respiratory Distress Observation Scale (RDOS), and then spent countless hours researching how the tool would help her patients. Ms. Cote has developed an educational plan to implement the tool throughout Bayhealth; it has been granted approval and is now being implemented.