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Vol 19, No. 12 • May 2020
News You Can Use
Nursing is the dream job that Alexander never knew she wanted By Lucy Weber Cindy Alexander never dreamed of becoming a nurse. As a student struggling at the University of Southern Mississippi, the Iuka native found herself mentally exhausted and needing a break. Her parents told her she could sit out a semester but she had to be responsible for all her expenses. To pay her bills, Alexander interviewed for a job as a certified nursing assistant at Forrest General Hospital "even though I had no idea what the job of a CNA consisted of. I just knew I needed a job," she said. Hired as a tech in the surgical neurology floor, she met her manager Serena Carpenter. "I tell anyone who asks, she is the reason I became a nurse." Six months into the job, Alexander was called in by Ms. Carpenter, who had Return Address: P.O. Box 1292 Corinth, MS
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a reputation for breaking careers, not making them. The supervisor told Alexander she could
Cindy Alexander
662-643-6842
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Nurse takes her skills to New York to offer badly needed help during pandemic By Lucy Weber Roshonda Turner, uplifted by her faith, is a frontline hero in the faceto-face fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The Selmer native, who works as a trauma nurse at Regional One Health in Memphis, headed to New York City on April 15 to volunteer her skills and services for three weeks. "I came to help my fellow nurses fight this pandemic," she said. "I prayed about it and asked God that if it's for me to go, he will send me. And here I am. "The nurses here are exhausted mentally, physically, and emotional-
ly so being able to help them is a great feeling. They are very thankful," said Turner, the mother of four-year-old Ashton. "New York is filled with Covid compared to Memphis. The hospital where I'm working is 99 percent filled with Covid patients. I never had a patient with Covid in Memphis." see TURNER pg 4
Roshonda Turner
Through nursing, Foster returns the care shown to her family
become an exceptional nurse and she needed to go back to school to study nursing. "It was what she saw in me and the way I treated patients. It's almost like she didn't give me a choice" but to become a nurse, Alexander said. Now, with 11 years as a 38835 registered nurse, Alexander is showing patients and others how good a nurse she is. She works full time at North Mississippi Medical Hospital - seven days on see ALEXANDER pg 4
By Lucy Weber One nurse can make a big impact. Just ask Marly Kate Foster. Foster grew up hearing about the care, concern and compassion a nurse showed to her grandfather after he left the hospital and came home on hospice. Although she was only four when Roy C. Isbell, the grandfather she called her best friend, died, Foster said the family has always Marly Kate Foster
been grateful to that unnamed nurse. "My family tells the stories. I don't know how many times I've heard them," said Foster, who 21 years later works at Magnolia Regional Health Center, the same hospital where her grandfather and her grandmother Jackie Isbell spent time in their later years. "That one person made a difference to my family," said Foster, who grew up in Corinth. "She gave us hope and she gave us peace." Since graduating cum laude from MUW with her nursing degree in 2017, Foster has loved every minute of working at the Corith hospital. "I'm doing something I know my grandparents would be proud of," she said. "I do try to make connections with my patients and their families. see FOSTER pg 4