Philip Musin is highly appreciative of winning the DAISY international nursing award and shows the hand-sculptured award and certificate. Musin is the first winner of this award employed by American Addiction Center. Musin works now at its Riverview facility, the River Oaks Treatment Center.
A local Riverview nurse has won the esteemed DAISY Award for exceptional patient care
By STEPHEN FLANAGAN JACKSON
A Riverview nurse is the recent recipient of a distinguished international award for his exceptional service. In honor of Nurses Week 2021, Florida-based River Oaks Treatment Center nurse, Phillip Musin, was recently presented with a DAISY Award for his exemplary service to the healthcare industry.
Musin has been an RN (registered nurse) for just over two years and is due to begin the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program this coming fall. From the nominations he received, it is clear that this award celebrates his warmth, compassion, understanding and equal treatment when it comes to patient care. He is recognized for his stellar ability to adapt his approach to caring for each individual client, to make personal connections with patients and to help them feel at ease, especially during the admission process to the facility, which many find difficult.
“I am extremely honored,” exclaimed Musin upon notification of the international award. Musin points out that the DAISY is usually given to more orthodox nurses at acute care hospitals. “I am the first winner at a mental health and substance abuse facility.”
Recognizing the art of compassionate care provided every single day by nurses in thousands of healthcare practices across the globe, the DAISY Award is given to nurses nominated by patients, family, other nurses, physicians, clinicians and members of staff. Started in 1999, the awards program tributes these incredible healthcare providers, acknowledging their status as outstanding role models.
At a River Oaks Nurses Week Brunch in May, Musin was presented with a certificate of gratitude, as well as the meaningfully fitting “A Healer’s Touch” sculpture, hand-carved by an artist from the Shona tribe in Zimbabwe, using serpentine, a mineral rock. These particular sculptures are chosen due to their symbolism of the profound respect for traditional healers in Shona culture. Healers throughout the US and the entire world are affectionately treasured by the communities for which they care; therefore, their respect, recognition and well being are of great importance – a perfect parallel of how the people at River Oaks clinic feel about their phenomenal nurses!
An acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune SYstem, The DAISY Foundation was formed in November 1999 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes, who died at age 33 of complications from Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). The nursing care Patrick received when hospitalized profoundly touched his family.
Musin, who is 33, grew up in Bradenton where he went to high school and college. He has worked in various related positions: as a nurse in other mental health facilities, as a nurse with troubled youth and as a nurse with the homeless in Jacksonville and in the Tampa and Bradenton areas. Musin has worked at the clinic in Riverview for almost two years. Now, he anticipates another career development…and a geographic move.
“I’ve been living in Riverview with my brother and his family,” says Musin. “Soon, I will be enrolling at Nova Southeastern in a two- year program to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner.
“I will move to Clearwater in the fall for this program, but I expect to continue to work here at Riverview, maybe two days a week,” explains Musin.
There has been an increase in the need for nurses during the covid-19 pandemic. Musin sees a continuous need for nurses with a holistic approach even beyond Covid, especially in the mental health area.