The International Home Care Nurses Organization (IHCNO) is a Supportive Association of the DAISY Foundation whose mission is to acknowledge nurses for extraordinary, compassionate, skilled care provided to patients and their families. The goal of this partnership is to recognize home care nurse and midwives throughout the world for the important care and compassion they provide. Nominations are ongoing and can be made on the IHCNO website. The selection process is a blinded review by experienced international home care nurses. Nominations are scored according to the IHCNO Nurse Leader criteria found on the http://www.ihcno.orgwebsite.
I am pleased to introduce the first IHCNO DAISY Nurse Leader Honoree, Dorcas Wanjohi, BSN, RN, PHN, MHA. Dorcas is the Extended Care Coordinator at Southern California Kaiser Permanente. She was nominated by Melissa Kimble, BSN, RN, PHN, who shared the following:
Dorcas has been a strong influence at Kaiser Permanente for since 2021. She came to the United States after a career in Kenya and the United Kingdom. She was a huge influence on the international nurses whom she supervised through her very diverse clinical background. She speaks several languages and this helped with clinicians and patients who struggle with English as a second language. Due to her intense desire for patients to get exactly what they needed, she staffs cases with nurses of similar background to the patients. While that brings the greatest positive outcomes for the patients and staff, it places the highest amount of stress on her personally.
Prior to coming to Kaiser, Dorcas helped to establish the first Hospital in Home service in the San Bernardino, California area. They successfully kept patients from being admitted to the hospital and allowed clinicians to visit the patient at home. In addition, Dorcas also worked to implement and deploy the first telehealth program from the KP-Fontana as the first round of COVID hit. She was able to decrease the spread of the disease for both the patients and staff alike. Dorcas had taken on the role of two or three additional supervisors when they had been out on leave. She was always very supportive of staff maintaining a work/life balance. Her focus is to ensure international staff members can take a long leave time to return to their home country. This had created a significant challenge in making sure patients were adequately staffed. It had been key in recruiting and retaining staff and imperative in meeting the diverse needs of a county and state with over 150 languages in their service area.
Currently, Dorcas is active outside her career, doing projects in international service work. Her projects have supported building houses for widows in her home country as well as supporting the local caregivers of medically fragile children. Dorcas stands as a sterling example of what life as an international home care nurse does in this world.
In response to her recognition, Dorcas said: "Thank you for this meaningful award. I have had a very fulfilling career and am fortunate to have tremendous faith that helps me weather the difficulties we face in healthcare. I believe that faith has helped me minister to colleagues and patients. The DAISY Award from the IHCNO is an extraordinary privilege that will continue to inspire me to lead with grace and gratitude. Thank you deeply and truly."
Congratulations Dorcas as the 2023 inaugural IHCNO DAISY Leader honoree! Visit http://www.ihcno.org for photographs.