Sparrow honors Behavioral Health manager with first-ever DAISY Leader Award 

LANSING, MI – Sparrow’s manager of Behavioral Health has been recognized with E.W. Sparrow Hospital’s first-ever DAISY Leader Award for her continued compassion and passion for people struggling with mental illness.

Beth Creamer, who works at the Behavioral Health unit at the E.W. Sparrow St. Lawrence Campus, has been a mental health nurse for decades and goes above and beyond to ensure patients receive leading-edge care. She works diligently to keep patients and caregivers safe while providing compassionate care.

Since being named department manager in 2020, Beth has diligently worked to update the Behavioral Health facility, advocating for additional cameras, badge access, and new security policies. She also helped to implement a new referral process to pull patients out of Sparrow emergency departments and into our Adult and Geriatric Inpatient Psychiatry Units. Beth also redesigned treatment planning to ensure patients are involved in their plan of care and is working with other behavioral health leaders to increase activity therapy for patients.

“I've been a Psychiatric Mental Health nurse for over 30 years and feel privileged to be an advocate for our vulnerable and sometimes stigmatized patient population,” Beth said. “The caregivers in Behavioral Health feel the same, and for that reason it's a great pleasure to support them in the wonderful work they do on the units.”

The DAISY Award is an international program that rewards and celebrates the extraordinary, compassionate, and skillful care given by nurses every day. However, the DAISY Nurse Leader Award was created for a different purpose – to shine a light on those who don’t typically have direct patient care as part of their work, as well as those who create an environment where compassionate care thrives.

“The DAISY Award recognizes the super-human work that nurses do, no matter where they practice, in whatever role they serve, throughout their career,” said Tammy Banker, Sparrow Health System’s Clinical Director of Behavioral Health. “Compassionate care and super-human work exemplify Beth as a leader.”

Beth received a certificate of recognition, a DAISY pin to wear at work, and beautiful serpentine stone sculpture carved by the artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe. The special “Healer’s Touch” sculpture, designed for leaders, depicts the relationship nursing managers have with their caregivers and embraces the relationship nurses have with their patients.

Nurses and nursing leaders are nominated for the award throughout the year by patients and patients’ families.

To learn more about the DAISY Award, go to Sparrow.org/DAISY.

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Sparrow, a member of the prestigious Mayo Clinic Care Network, is mid-Michigan’s premier healthcare organization that includes hospitals in Lansing, Charlotte, St. Johns, Ionia and Carson City as well as Physicians Health Plan, Sparrow Care Network, Sparrow Medical Group and the Michigan Athletic Club. Sparrow has a partnership with Michigan Medicine at the Sparrow Children’s Center and is affiliated with Michigan State University’s three human health colleges. Through these partnerships and the dedication of our 10,000 Caregivers, Sparrow pursues a vision to be nationally recognized as a leader in quality and Patient experience. For more information, visit sparrow.org.