PCH welcomes newest Family Nurse Practitioner

Earlier thisyear, the Phillips County Hospital and Family Health Clinic welcomed their newest provider Danyeil Thomas, who moved from the south in search of a place where she and her husband of 11 years could raise their family.

"I would say a lot of things brought us here," Thomas told the PCN. "We were looking for a small town where we could raise our family and have a slower-paced lifestyle and spend more time together."

Thomas is a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), filling the final vacancy of healthcare providers at PCH. The four providers include Thomas, Dr. Edwin Medina MD, and fellow Family Nurse Practitioners Theresa Ohl and Elke Houser.

"We (Family Nurse Practitioners) see everyone from newborn to geriatric, so cradle to grave," Thomas said.

Danyeil and her husband Nick Thomas (who currently works at Ezzie's Wholesale) and their children Addison (age 8) and Paxton (age 3) arrived in Malta in January after a 1,800 mile road trip from Madison County, Alabama.

Thomas previously worked in her native state of Tennessee as a Nurse Practitioner in Lincoln County just across the border. She was a FNP at a clinic there for the past year.

Thomas started her college education at Motlow State Community College when she became a Registered Nurse and earned her associates degree in 2008. Motlow is a small town right outside of Lynchburg, the town made famous by Jack Daniels Whiskey.

She went on to earn her Bachelor's Degree in Nursing in 2015 from the University of North Alabama in Florence. Then she earned her Masters Degree in Nursing from the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2017.

Thomas shared how her pursuit of being in the medical field began.

"Back in high school I worked as a CNA and I really enjoyed taking care of people then, so I knew that I wanted to be a nurse," Thomas said. "So I went to nursing school and then I said I would never go back to school because I hated nursing school so much."

She was a nurse for five years, and as she continued to grow in love with her job, she realized that she wanted to go even further into her education.

"That was not my initial goal," Thomas said. "In the beginning, I just wanted to be a nurse. Then I realized that as a Nurse Practitioner I would be able to spend time with family. I get a little bit more control over the patient's plan of care and I can be more involved with their whole body system."

Thomas went on to say that some of the plan of care includes preventative care.

"I always like to remind people that annual physicals are good; mammograms and colonoscopies," Thomas said. "As a nurse, I can still remind patients of that but I feel now that I am their provider, that may take it to heart and schedule those things."

Thomas also appreciates being a part of the continuum of care, mentioning that being a nurse, you primarily only take care of patients on the floor and may never see that patient again.

Thomas shared what her experiences have been like working for PCH.

"It's been a really good transition and I have had some really good mentors here," Thomas said, "The providers, the clinic staff, and the nurses have been good with helping me find my way here and I think it has been a really good transition here for us."

The roughest part of the journey thus far, could have been the winter. This year's winter featured plenty of snow and days of temperatures falling past -40 degrees. But the Thomas family took the cold in stride.

"It was pretty cold," Thomas said. "But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I've never been in this type of weather where when you breathe your nose hairs freeze."

She has also experienced moments where her car wouldn't start. She ended up installing a block heater; crisis adverted.

"I would take winter over rain and tornadoes; which is what we had back home," Thomas said. "The humidity in the summer back home is horrendous. You can't breathe and it's like going into a sauna."