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I’ve Won an Award for Best Nursing Innovation!

I am proud to announce that I’ve won an award for the “Best Nursing Innovation” in Nurse.org’s 2025 Best of Nursing Awards.

This award, which highlights the Awake and Walking ICU initiative, is a triumphant recognition of nursing innovation, and all those nurses who’ve worked tirelessly over the years to develop these protocols and advocate for evidence-based ICU practices.

Without them, I couldn’t have won this award, and the idea of an Awake and Walking ICU may have remained in obscurity indefinitely.

With that in mind, this accolade honors the pioneering efforts of dedicated innovators like Polly Bailey, APRN, and Louise Bezdjian, APRN, whose relentless commitment and sacrifices have shaped, studied, and perpetuated this revolutionary approach to ICU patient care.

Polly’s journey began with a poignant realization, after witnessing the profound physical, psychological, and cognitive impacts on a young intensive care survivor.

Guided by her nursing instincts, she sought a transformative solution during a time when the prevailing norm dictated that nurses merely follow physicians’ orders.

Her audacious inquiries challenged the established practices of her day by asking:

  • “Why are we automatically sedating every patient?”
  • “Why not embrace the potential benefits of keeping patients awake and mobile whenever possible?”
  • “What if we facilitated mobility and alertness post-intubation, rather than postponing rehabilitation until later?”

Still, despite the incontrovertible evidence that her approach dramatically improves patient outcomes, Polly faced significant resistance – losing friends, enduring mockery, and battling for support in the face of entrenched skepticism.

Nevertheless, her remarkable perseverance in confronting the status quo speaks volumes about her dedication to improving outcomes for ICU patients.

This award also symbolizes a victory for ICU revolutionists worldwide, who have been fighting for a more humane and evidence-based intensive care environment.

All things considered, the recognition of the Awake and Walking ICU as a nurse-led innovation marks a pivotal moment in our field, as it signifies a growing realization among ICU clinicians that traditional practices are not immutable and should evolve in the name of providing better care.

The tides are changing, and the ICU revolution is underway, bolstered by the ABCDEF Bundle.

Critical care medicine is on an upward trajectory, moving toward the widespread standardization of Awake and Walking ICUs.

And together, we are embracing this paradigm shift, igniting hope for the future of critical care – one in which patient dignity and mobility take center stage in the healing journey.

About the Author, Kali Dayton

Kali Dayton, DNP, AGACNP, is a critical care nurse practitioner, host of the Walking Home From The ICU and Walking You Through The ICU podcasts, and critical care outcomes consultant. She is dedicated to creating Awake and Walking ICUs by ensuring ICU sedation and mobility practices are aligned with current research. She works with ICU teams internationally to transform patient outcomes through early mobility and management of delirium in the ICU.

LEARN MORE

When patients are so ill that they require a ventilator in the ICU, the antiquated approach of heavy sedation and immobilization should be avoided in order to help prevent the immense burden of physical and cognitive disabilities suffered during survival. To understand this better, listen to Walking Home From The ICU. You will see what ICU consultant Kali Dayton provides to your team.

Her training will catalyze changes in your practice to improve outcomes, decrease costs, and allow your patients to return to their full lives. Learn to love your job again as you embrace whole person care instead of caring for inert sedated bodies. Kali is leading ICU teams to become Awake and Walking ICUs through true mastery of the ABCDEF Bundle.

I endorse her mission and look forward to the standardization of this evidence-based approach in ICUs all over the world.

Dr. Wes Ely, author of "Every Deep Drawn Breath," leading founder of the ABCDEF Bundle and ICU CAM delirium screening tool, and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

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