Pamela Morgan wins first place award from Mississippi Health Care Association

Nurses often sacrifice their personal lives to ensure that others are comfortable. Whether it be calming a sick child, being moral support for a patient or simply holding someone’s hand, nursing takes a special kind of caring. Because of everything that nurses are responsible for, it is rare to see one who outshines others, but sometimes one nurse is a real standout from his or her peers. 

Joyce Hubbard and Pamela Morgan of the Heritage House Nursing Home.

At the Heritage House of Vicksburg Nursing Center, 3103 Wisconsin Ave., Pamela Morgan is that nurse. After six years of serving and caring for others as a Licensed Practical Nurse at the nursing home, her commitment to her practice was noticed. Yesterday, Morgan was named as the first place recipient of the Caregiver Award from the Mississippi Health Care Association. 

“The Mississippi Health Care Association gives out different awards for long-term care facilities,” Morgan said. “There are several different awards they give out such as a first, second and third place award for administrators, DONs [Director of Nursing], CNAs [Certified Nursing Assistant], social workers and activities. They give out all of those awards to different nursing homes in the state, and I was nominated for the facilities award by the residents who are capable of voting and the other employees.

“I was nominated and ended up winning first place. I was honestly just ecstatic to be nominated. It’s amazing, but I couldn’t do this by myself. It’s a team effort here, and I couldn’t do it without my peers.”

Morgan also says that her family had a big role to play in her career choice. 

“My family has a lot of nurses in it, and I just like to take care of people,” she said. “I just love it. I love my job, and I love working here. If you need help with anything, everyone is just here to help.”

Though nursing has always been a part of her life, Morgan says it is different working at Heritage House in comparison to a hospital. The difference is what drew her to the nursing home.

“I worked at a hospital for 22 years before I came here, and I had a relative that worked here, and she said that she loved it and got to meet a lot of great people when you’re taking care of others,” she said. “It’s like more of a home setting, and you get to know the people. I told her that I’d like to try it, came here, and I’ve been here ever since.”

Looking forward, Morgan hopes to continue working at the Heritage House for as long as they’ll have her and to continue encouraging others who aspire to become nurses.

“This is a very compassionate job, very heart feeling of just being able to take care of people every day and do things for them that they can’t do for themselves,” she said.