NMMC Presents DAISY Award to Petty
Presenting Kendall Petty (center) of 4 Central with NMMC’s most recent DAISY Award are (from left) David Wilson, president; Theresa Jenkins, 4 Central nurse manager; Emily Edwards, director of nursing support; and Megan Bunch, director of inpatient nursing.
TUPELO, Miss.—North Mississippi Medical Center has awarded its most recent DAISY Award to registered nurse Kendall Petty of 4 Central.
Petty was nominated by a family member of a patient who was admitted in December 2019 with Stage IV pancreatic cancer. “During that first hospitalization, our path crossed with Kendall. From the moment she entered our room, she put us at ease. She made (my stepfather’s) situation seem like the most important situation on the unit,” the family member wrote. “We know that she had no doubt seen much worse, and at that very time she was actively caring for others in their final days when (his) cancer journey was just beginning, but she made us feel like her world had stopped as much as ours had. She made us feel like (his) cancer mattered. She made us feel like our cancer was the only cancer on her mind. To put aside what has become routine and to show a hurting family that your heart is capable of breaking right alongside theirs is not a learned occupational skill. It’s a God-given quality and it’s a rare gift that Kendall so impressively exhibits.”
The patient was hospitalized multiple times during his three-month battle with cancer. “Kendall gave us the gift of making her time with us seem like it was her greatest privilege to care for not only (my stepfather) but us too,” the nomination states. Even when the patient was not in the hospital, Petty checked on the family. “She would encourage our hearts to keep fighting, and she would sincerely grieve with us when we knew the heartbreaking direction we were heading,” his stepdaughter wrote.
Although he was not her patient, Petty spent time with the family when he was moved to Hospice care. “Kendall was there as (he) took his final breaths,” she wrote. “She sat huddled next to (his) bedside, hand-in-hand with our family as we prayed (him) into eternity. She shared her favorite memories and listened intently as we shared ours. Kendall was there for one of the hardest and most sacred moments of our lives. She was there.”
A native of the Fairview community of Itawamba County, Petty graduated from Itawamba Agricultural High School is 2013. She earned an associate degree from Itawamba Community College in 2015 and her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Mississippi University for Women in 2018. She joined NMMC’s 4 Central staff in 2018 and now serves as a charge nurse. On her unit, she administers chemotherapy and performs plasma pheresis.
Petty 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. Nomination forms are available throughout NMMC or at www.nmhs.net/daisy-award. For more information, call (662) 377-3431 or email daisyawards@nmhs.net.
