PRMC Nurse Practitioner wins Daisy Award for helping a veteran

SALISBURY, Md. – Stephen Mears, a nurse practitioner in PRMC Family Medicine, recently earned the Daisy Award for his willingness to go the extra mile to help patients.

Mears was nominated by a veteran patient, who was having trouble receiving a diagnosis for a complicated health issue, and had trouble navigating the Veterans Health system.

In his nomination, the patient wrote, “Because of Steve, I was able to be seen by allergy and endocrinology and receive my proper diagnoses of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Steve did not give up and kept digging to make sure all of the proper tests were performed. Without Steve’s expertise and heartfelt care, I would still be living with this lifelong illness that was causing me to go into life-threatening anaphylaxis and thyroid storm. Because of Steve, I am now able to live a much better quality of life.”

Mears was honored in a ceremony in front of his colleagues, where he received a certificate for being an extraordinary nurse, along with fresh flowers and a hand-carved sculpture called “A Healer’s Touch”.