Published: Dec. 11, 2015
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Nurse Alicia Flores is known for the compassionate care she shows to her Patients on a daily basis. Flores also takes that compassion to the streets as a hardworking volunteer with the Homeless Angels.
The nonprofit organization’s mission is to prevent homelessness in high risk populations and to bring people off the streets by finding the means to get them back on their feet and into permanent housing.
As a Homeless Angel, Flores has walked the streets of downtown Lansing passing out “blessing bags” full of toiletries, hand warmers, bus tokens, socks and other essentials needed to survive life on the streets.
The Homeless Angels have also hosted laundry days at local laundromats, paying for washing and drying for anyone who walks in the door, and community-funded dinners. The group picks up and delivers donated furniture, organizes fundraising events, and even take turns staffing the Homeless Angels office to help people apply online for food, toiletries, clothing vouchers and diapers.
Recently, Nursing leaders commended Flores’ efforts with a gift certificate to the Sparrow Café. In typical form, Flores thanked them profusely before “paying it forward” by giving the gift card to a critically ill Patient’s mother who had very little money or resources.
Those acts of selfless giving are why she has now been honored with the DAISY Award.
Sponsored by The DAISY Foundation, the DAISY Award is an international program that rewards and celebrates the extraordinary, compassionate and skillful care given by Nurses every day.
The DAISY Award is a way to recognize and make visible the contribution and value of Nurses wherever Nursing is practiced.
Flores received a certificate, a DAISY pin to wear at work and beautiful serpentine stone sculpture carved by the artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe. The sculpture depicts the embracing relationship Nurses have with their Patients.
Congratulations to Alicia Flores, a Sparrow Nurse who literally “walks the talk” when it comes to providing quality, compassionate care to everyone, every time.