TRISHA PETITTE, PHD, APRN, FNP-BC
While Trisha Petitte has seen many patients throughout her career, nothing means more to her than knowing how much they value her care. After a long shift, whether in hospice nursing, on a cardiac care unit or in family practice, their gratitude is all the reward she needs.
“Hearing them thank me for my work and say things like ‘You’ve been the best nurse we’ve had’ really sticks in my mind about how grateful they are to have had me take care of them,” she said.
Specifically, a hospice patient in rural West Virginia comes to mind. Suffering from COPD and on oxygen, the woman had few visitors and looked forward to Petitte’s monthly visits. “I got to know her more on a personal level in addition to taking care of her,” she said. “I went through a lot of ups and downs with her.”
Petitte joined the Medical University of South Carolina in September as an assistant professor in the School of Nursing. While she dedicates much of her time to shaping the next generation of nurses, she continues to see patients in a family practice clinic.
“I fully believe that it’s a very important part of our role as professors that we have those direct, real-world experiences that we can share with our students and vice versa,” she said. “It’s the richness of the environment that you can share all of your stories and come up with what might be new ways of practicing or what might be better ways of helping our patients lead the healthiest lives possible.”
Nursing was actually a career shift for Petitte, who first worked as a phlebotomist while in a public administration master’s degree program. She spent about a dozen years working on grants for cardiovascular, asthma and diabetes programs but knew deep down that that she wanted to be more hands-on with patients. That’s when she enrolled in an accelerated BSN program.
Petitte said she’s continually inspired by resilient patients who bounce back from health crises and by fellow nurses and nurse educators with their dedication to their patients and evolving ideas to improve patient care and outcomes.
