Nurses worldwide are recognized for hard work & dedication

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- This week nurses across the world are being celebrated for their hard work. That work is often challenging but rewarding.

Whether you’re in a big city or small town, it all comes down to care.

Meet Daniel King. He’s a clinical LPN at Crossroads Family Medicine that’s a part of Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital.

He’s been a nurse for nearly a decade.

“It’s hard work. Nursing is hard work. It’s very busy,” said King.

Being a nurse in small town has its shining moments. No one’s a stranger and King says it makes building relationships easier.

Those relationships he says are crucial when it comes to care in a small town.

“Rural health is very important. We’re localized. We can build those patient physician, patient nurse relationships, without the patient having to go out of town, to keep them here. To know they’re going to be treated fairly and right is very important to the patients and very important to the hospital,” said King.

Those relationships are often built outside the walls of the doctors office. Relationships that have a deep meaning.

“It’s really special, it’s really special to me especially when you see your patients outside of the clinic. Whether,you know, in the grocery store, paying bills or whatever. They come up and hug you because they trust you. You’ve built that relationship with that patient . It really makes you feel good,” said King.

But hospitals in rural towns face challenges. In Winona, one thing administrators say they’re working to improve are the types of specialty care they offer.

“Having to send the patients out of town for specialty, the cardiology, you know, different departments. Although we’re working on getting some of that specialized here at Tyler Holmes we’ve got great leadership, we’ve got a great outpatient, physical therapy department ,wound care center,” said King.

Being a nurse is something King always knew he wanted to do. It runs in the family. His mother worked in the medical field and so does his wife.

For king, the job is more than just clocking in and out. It’s a job he takes pride in.

“It’s a blessing when you have good health and to be able to help out people that aren’t as fortunate. Just to hear the stories that my mom and my wife when they’ll come home, the feel good stories and be able to help a patient and I just wanted to be a part of that. I wanted to have that feeling of what’s its like to give back,” said King.

Prior to working at the clinic King worked as a home health nurse.