Perry Pettie, RN, at Baptist Memorial Hospital DeSoto, Southaven, MS, has just received his FOURTH DAISY Award! He's the first man to receive it more than once and he's the first person to receive it four times!
It is not unusual for me to be on the 8th floor and see Perry going out of his way to help patients but also to help other nurses. In a particular incident in April of this year, I sent a home hospice patient to the 8th floor for GIP. The patient was in respiratory distress and a pain crisis. The patient's sister was panicking and could not care for her sister at home. Multiple attempts were made by me and other hospice team members to discuss the patient's code status with the sister. In her panic, the sister could not make the difficult decision to make her own sister a DNR. We all knew that the patient was not going to survive and the trauma that would come from trying to resuscitate this terminally ill woman.
Perry was the charge nurse that day and he took it upon himself at the end of his shift to try and talk with the patient's sister one more time. He could not stand the thought of the sister being traumatized by watching them code this patient. Perry was able to talk with her in a way that got her attention and made her truly understand that her sister would pass away and that coding her would unlikely bring her back. She was able to confidently make her sister a DNR. That patient passed away comfortably and peacefully. The sister was extremely grateful for Perry taking his time to speak with her and help her make the best decision.
The Hospice team at Baptist North Mississippi is grateful for the work Perry does and not just for hospice patients.