Wendy Harris, RN has been with Decatur Morgan Hospital for 34 years. She started her nursing career on the PVC unit and worked there for years including throughout the pandemic. She has spent the last year opening the Decatur Morgan Heart Failure Clinic. 

One of her patients at the Heart Failure Clinic, came into the clinic, and continued to look confused regarding following instructions on medications. He called the clinic numerous times to ask questions about his medications. Wendy asked that the patient return to the clinic with all of his medications. She spoke with the patient in a one-on-one setting, and asked the patient if he could read and write. The patient reluctantly admitted that he could not. This patient had been taking one pill from each pill container and taking them 2 times a day. He had two medications (Entresto and Carvedilol) that were duplicate bottles with medications inside – he was taking from both bottles. It was determined this patient understands colors, the number ‘1’, and can identify ‘am’ and ‘pm.’ The duplicate pill bottles were condensed into one bottle and then they were color coded. Red was used to represent one time a day and blue for two times a day. Using the number ‘1’ and ‘am’ written on the red tab, the patient understood to take one pill in the morning. Using the number ‘1 – am’ and ‘1 – pm’ written on the blue tab, the patient understood to take one pill in the morning and one pill in the evening. Once the patient saw a way to understand independently, he was very thankful.

Wendy is being recognized for taking the time and effort to figure out what was behind this man's "noncompliance" and her effort to preserve his dignity and facilitate better health! He must be so proud that he is able to now able to independently understand which pill is for what purpose and time!