Nursing Alum Wins Prestigious Award
Nursing Alum Wins Prestigious Award for Compassion
Nursing students understand that medical care not only requires technical skill and knowledge, but also having compassion and care for the patients and their families. The College of Nursing recognized recent nursing graduate Andres Alderete with the prestigious DAISY Award for exemplifying these qualities. It was the first time a UTEP nursing student has received the award.
The DAISY Award recognizes nurses in healthcare and academic settings nationwide through nominations made by their peers, instructors or patients who have seen or experienced the extraordinary compassionate care provided by the nurse. Alderete, who received the award during the summer 2024 Nursing Pinning Ceremony where he graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Nursing, embodies his commitment to nursing through his excellence in skill both technical and social, serving as an inspiration to his peers and future healthcare professionals.
“The pressures associated with classes, clinicals and exams can make it easy for students to lose sight of the art of caring, while learning the science of nursing,” Leslie Robbins, Ph.D., dean of the College of Nursing, said during the ceremony. “Students with a true calling for nursing never lose sight of the fact that they are treating a human being who needs all the sensitivity and compassion they can demonstrate, at a time when they are most vulnerable and in need.”
The college’s Success and Retention Coordinator Shalla Copeland, Ph.D., said the DAISY Foundation has expanded the award nomination process to include nursing students, who are the nurse practitioners of tomorrow.
“We want them to be competent with exams and skills, but providing that compassionate care, going above and beyond is always going to be the expectation as a nurse,” Copeland said. “Being able to recognize those students is sort of a nice thing that maybe they weren't expecting.”
Alderete’s clinical instructor, Jennifer Hull, nominated him after a conversation with the family of a patient Alderete was aiding. Alderete showed such compassion and caring in the situation that it prompted the patient’s family to seek out Hull and share their experience with him, Hull said.
“I feel like that's what this DAISY Award stands for ... that extra five minutes to explain something in the midst of the hundred other things he had to do that day,” Hull said.
When Alderete was in his surgical rotation, he rushed toward a room where a patient was having an emergency to see if he could help. There was plenty of help in the room, but Alderete spotted a woman who seemed to be a relative to the patient in distress. He asked if she wanted to talk to someone.
“She politely said no, so I told her that I knew she wouldn’t want to talk right now, but I would be there with her,” Alderete said. “And, in my mind, I was just doing part of the job. I saw her crying, and this is what I’ve got to do.” The woman Alderete was keeping company later wrote a heartfelt letter to Alderete’s supervisor, who read it back to him in class, explaining how in that moment of despair, she didn’t think she needed his company, but looking back, it was exactly what she needed – to have someone there with her while her world crumbled.
Alderete said his colleagues and faculty were his biggest support in nursing school, and the community he found at the College of Nursing is an important career resource.
Now that he has graduated from the BSN program, he is looking forward to traveling the world, visiting friends, and starting his new job at Las Palmas Medical Center. Alderete plans to enjoy the upcoming year to the fullest, then come back to UTEP for a master's degree.
By Luisa Duenas
UTEP Marketing and Communications
