Pegues: A Decade Into Her Forever Job
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Demetrica Pegues, a Family Nurse Practitioner at Odom Rural Health Clinic, examines Bette Harris during a check-up last week. Pegues has worked at the clinic for a decade.
WATER VALLEY – When Demetrica Pegues came to work at Odom Rural Health Clinic as a Family Nurse Practitioner a decade ago, she had one of the shortest job interviews in history. Dr. Paul Odom called Pegues the day she took the national certification board exam after earning her Master of Science in Nursing from the Mississippi University for Women.
“He asked me if I was ready to come to work,” Pegues recalled. “I have been in Water Valley since then. Ten years.”
Pegues started at the clinic only days after that phone call, launching the next chapter in her medical career after logging six years as a registered nurse. She had previously served as a nursing supervisor at the Mississippi State Veterans Home in Oxford, working mostly weekends while earning her master’s degree.
“I had worked with Dr. Odom, he was the medical director at the VA,” Pegues recalled about the relationship early in her career that forged a lasting impression. “He would tell me why he would do certain things, or what to look for in a patient. That kind of cued me in, maybe I could do this.”
Admittedly the challenges of working in rural health care were daunting when she first started at the Odom clinic.
“You don’t know what you are going to see when you open the door to the exam room and greet your patient. Is it psychological, an illness, what are we doing today?” Pegues explained. “There is never a dull moment. We see everything from A to Z.”
Pegues would soon build lasting relationships with patients, becoming intimately involved in their lives. She discovered that in rural healthcare the diagnosis is only the start of the journey. Her patients do not always have access to the healthcare they need, or they may need help with understanding the challenges ahead.
Pegues enjoys talking to her patients about their health and lifestyle choices to help in their daily routine. An appointment can include extra time to simply listen to a patient talk about their family. The care may also extend to working with the patient to source a medicine that is affordable. And there are times when patients arrive at the clinic with an urgent health crisis such as a heart attack or stroke and have to be stabilized while waiting for an ambulance to transport to the emergency room in Oxford. Pegues said referrals are common when a patient needs to see a specialist for advanced treatment.
“I will follow back up and make sure they went to the appointment and did not have any problems,” Pegues added.
This may be as simple as a phone call to ensure the patient has transportation when the specialist is in another city. Or it may be a phone call after the appointment to consult with the patient.
“The patients love it, it is not like you are getting in their business. I have patients who have been with me graciously for 10 years, I know their kids and grandkids.”
Pegues credits her collaborating physicians – first Dr. Odom and now Dr. George Abraham – for guiding her during the last decade.
“They have an overwhelming amount of knowledge, They have so much information to share” Pegues said. “Also Vicki Turnage and the entire staff, the collaboration at the clinic is amazing.”
She recalled asking Dr. Odom for advice early in her career.
“He said, ‘When you wake up in the morning, always pray for wisdom.’ I always do that every morning because we have our patients’ lives in our hands and they depend on us. Dr. Odom was always willing to stop what he was doing to give me advice. To tell me why, he would give me the rationale for it.”
The sense of fulfillment makes Pegues confident this is her forever job.
“I enjoy it here. I enjoy working with my colleagues, I enjoy my patients most of all and the fulfillment from serving them.”
Pegues cited a conversation from last week when a patient was in the clinic for a follow-up visit and credited her with saving his life.
“He went to one doctor and had his gall bladder removed, but he was still having pain,” she explained.
Pegues ultimately diagnosed the patient with cancer.
“We immediately sent him to oncology,” she said.
Pegues see patients at the clinic Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. She is off every other Wednesday.
Demetrica Pegues lives in Oxford with her husband, Carlos Pegues; daughter, Madison Pegues; and two bonus sons, Kingston Pegues and Justin Pegues.
