Experience, Dedication Keep Home Health Care Employees on the Road

Euree Knight, LPTA, and Lisa Gatlin, RN, PCM, are just two of the employees who work for Forrest Health Home Health Care in the Laurel office. That office, one of the first in the health system’s chain of facilities outside Hattiesburg, is home to eight registered nurses, three physical therapists, and an office manager. If you add up all of the years they have put in, they have more than 200 years of experience. Between Knight and Gatlin with 37 and 27 years, respectively, they have a total of 64 years between just the two of them.

“We have so much experience here,” said a proud Gatlin. “It’s something we pride ourselves on. I never have to worry if nurses are doing what they are supposed to do or not. That 200-plus years is just with Forrest Health and doesn’t include any of our nursing or therapy experience in other jobs or with other agencies.”

The compassionate and outstanding care they offer is what also keeps people coming back. “We have so many repeat customers,” said Gatlin. “If a patient has had a nurse previously and needs someone again, they will call and specifically ask for a nurse by name.”

Euree has her own unique story of how she came to work with Home Health. “I had applied at the hospital three times, but I was only 19 at the time, and they didn’t think I was old enough and didn’t think I would stay on the job long enough if I was hired,” she explained. “But I begged for a job.”

Knight was hired in 1988 and worked as a phlebotomist for six years, while also going to college on and off as she could. When she graduated, she moved to physical therapy and has been a member of the team since then – about 37 years. She hasn’t regretted a minute of it.

Knight said sometimes Home Health Care can be surprising, not typical. “Some days you think you’ve seen it all, but maybe you haven’t,” she said. “We can laugh about some stories, but a typical day for me is to try and make everybody happy and to try, to the best of my ability, to help patients to whatever level of function that may be. If a patient is just happy sitting in a wheelchair, then that’s our goal and that is what I help them with.”

She starts her days early, because a lot of her patients are early birds, but she knows which ones to steer clear of once 10 am hits the clock and The Price is Right comes on. There are those patients who are excited to see her and others not so much. She remembers one particular patient, a man with a bit of dementia, who sometimes didn’t know his own family. “I walked in and he looked at me and just groaned, because he knew what I was there for,” she said. “He definitely remembered me!”

Knight believes it’s only natural for people to be more comfortable in their own home to receive whatever care Home Health Care may be providing them. “The added personal assistance makes things easier in their own space, and I think they are more susceptible to giving us back what we want them to do to increase their functional outcomes,” she said. “Basically, Home Health Care changes people’s lives by giving it back to them. If I have a patient who is bed bound and when I finish my time with them they are walking, even if it’s in their house, then that’s a life changer.”

Knight said some of her patients, who are of working age, have been able to return to their jobs. She tells of one patient who had a stroke and couldn’t walk to check her mail. “That’s all she wanted to be able to do was check her mail,” Knight said. “Before I left her, we were able to make that happen. We try and see that their personal goals are met and when that happens, it is huge. You don’t think about checking your mail until you can’t do it. Then you think about it.”

The most rewarding part of her job is loving these people who enter her life as complete strangers and some who never leave it. “I love the people,” she said. “I really love older people, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’m getting old. They are a joy to be around, and I hope that I am as I age.”

She also really loves to see her patients smile. “That makes me happy,” she said. “I can be in a bad mood when I get out of the car, but when I open that door and see their smile and their happiness, that makes me happy. I enjoy being in Home Health Care! I really love my job!”