Mojgan Bailey has spent 10 of her 30-plus years as a nurse, helping people put their lives back on track.
A charge nurse in the Detox Unit of Peachford Hospital, Bailey embraces the notion that addiction isn’t her patients’ only challenge.
“By the time, a person gets to us, some have lost everything. They’ve alienated their families. Their homes haven’t been taken care of and are in disrepair. They’re broken financially,” Bailey said. “Probably half don’t have a roof over their head.”
Bailey walks the fine line between enabling and helping them, and she’s not above reaching out beyond the hospital’s walls to lend her patients a much-needed hand.
Clay Boyles, the hospital’s HR director, recalls an instance where one of Bailey’s patients was worried about being evicted from her home.
Bailey helped her patient reach out to her landlord, who was not eager to help, Boyles said.
The patient, Bailey and the landlord were on the phone until the situation could be resolved, payment could be made, and eviction could be avoided, he said.
“Mojgan went out of her way to help this patient with a personal issue, realizing that if the patient was discharged from our hospital without a place to go home to, her chances of remaining sober and continuing to improve her life would not be great,” Boyles said.
Some patients will continue to struggle. But watching those who are able to turn their lives around is a reward that cannot be measured, Bailey said.
A native of Iran, Bailey moved to the United States in 1977 just before the revolution in her country. She originally planned to study medicine but found that too difficult because of the language barrier. She received her nursing degree from the University of Evansvile.
She worked as a medical/surgical nurse, then in a hospital’s psychiatric unit.. After a five-year break from nursing, she moved to Atlanta to be near her aging parents and started working at Peachford.
“I fell in love,” Bailey said.
On the strictly medical side, she helped nurse people back to health and then sent them on their way.
In detox, “you can actually see people’s lives change and whole families change,” Bailey said. “It is so rewarding.”
She believes she’s where she’s supposed to be.
“I am a very spiritual person,” Bailey said. “I really believe I am in this position because this is where God wants me.”
Walking into work, she says a small prayer.
“Lord, let me love your children the way you love them,” Bailey said. “And let me assure them you love them.”
