TUPELO, Miss.—North Mississippi Medical Center has awarded its most recent DAISY Award to registered nurse Wanda Turner of the Rehabilitation Institute.

Turner was nominated by the mother of a patient who was taken for surgery before she arrived at the hospital. “I didn’t get to see her. My feet and knee were swollen bad and I was out of breath,” she wrote. “This little lady put me in a wheelchair, made a couple of calls and found out where my daughter was and pushed me from the east side all the way to the west side to see her before she made it in surgery. I can’t thank her enough.”

Turner, who lives in Tremont, received her 35-year service pin this year. A 1978 graduate of Tremont High School, Turner worked in a factory and started her family before going to nursing school. She joined NMMC’s Critical Care Unit staff in May 1986 after completing her associate degree in nursing from the former Itawamba Junior College in Fulton. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1999.

After five years in the Critical Care Unit, Turner transferred to the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory/Non-Invasive Cardiology. There she served as a supervisor and was instrumental in helping develop NMMC’s Heart and Vascular Institute. During her career, she also worked in the North Mississippi Health Services Education Department and served as director of education at NMMC-Hamilton (Alabama) before being named nursing supervisor at IMA-Tupelo. She then worked in the Emergency Department at NMMC-Tupelo before transferring to the Rehabilitation Institute 10 years ago.

Turner received a certificate, a DAISY Award pin, a bouquet donated by Bishop’s Flower Shop and a hand-carved stone sculpture titled A Healer’s Touch.

The DAISY Award is an international program that rewards and celebrates the extraordinary compassionate and skillful care given by nurses every day. For more information, call (662) 377-3431 or email daisyawards@nmhs.net.