Carolyn Chucci: Athens Regional Medical 
Center

By Laura Raines

For AJC Jobs

Compassionate nurses know that sometimes the best medicine doesn’t come in a bottle. It’s not something prescribed on a chart or written in a protocol. It might be something as simple as a comforting touch — or it could be a Rottweiler named Bubba.

Barry Williams, Special Carolyn Chucci

Barry Williams, Special Carolyn Chucci found a creative way to reunite a family dog with a comatose patient before she passed away.

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Last year, the charge nurse in the Medical B and pulmonary unit at Athens Regional Medical Center brought an unusual request to the unit’s nursing director, Carolyn Chucci.

“The family of a dying patient wanted her dog, Bubba, to be able to say goodbye to her. I knew it wasn’t safe to bring the dog on the floor, but I could see it was important to them,” said Chucci, 48.

A nurse at Athens Regional for 17 years, Chucci knows the hospital inside-out. Enlisting the help of a fellow supervisor, a nursing technician and a student nurse, she transported the patient past surprised engineers and construction workers to meet her family at the hospital’s loading dock.

“The dog licked her hand and everyone sobbed,” she said. “I realized it was as much a way for her sons to say goodbye as [it was for] the dog.

“Her sister told her later that it was ‘OK for her to go now,’ and she died that afternoon. She was comatose throughout the visit, but I think she knew.”

Chucci’s gesture made an impression on co-worker Rebecca Washington.

“Carolyn gave an exceptional gift to the patient and her family,” wrote Washington, who nominated Chucci. “She displayed great problem-solving skills and empathy... It would have been easy to say ‘no’ and blame it on hospital policy.”

Chucci believed it was the right thing to do.

“It took me a long time to come to nursing,” she said. “My dad was a pediatrician, and he always thought I was perfectly suited for nursing. In high school, everyone assumed I’d be a nurse, so I was determined to do anything but.”

Chucci had two small children by the time she finished her nursing degree at DeKalb College (now Georgia Perimeter College) and started her career in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Athens Regional.

“I know now that nursing is exactly where I was supposed to end up,” she said.

Dog-visiting requests are not a normal nursing function and Chucci knew the floor nurses couldn’t leave their patients to make it happen. As a leader, she got creative.

“You can’t tell your staff to do the right thing, to go the extra mile, unless you’re willing to do it yourself,” she said.