Sue Hayes, RN Nurse Manager
Sue Hayes, RN Nurse Manager
OB / Well Newborn Nursery
Mission Hospital
Sue grew up in Riverside, California one of six children. While in college she had a number of different majors and all of a sudden realized she needed to be prepared for a job that would support her. She was in a study group with science majors and realized she loved science and followed up with nursing. Sue has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Fresno State University.
Sue Hayes is the Nurse Manager of an OB / Well Newborn Nursery, at Mission Hospital (a 250 bed trauma center), located in Mission Viejo, California (Southern Orange County). She is in charge of a 26 bed OB unit and says “I am on call 24 hours 7days a week.” However, Sue is usually at the hospital 4 days a week for a 10 hour day shift, arriving around 6 am and working until 4 or 5 in the afternoon.
The staff nurses work 12 hour shifts 7PM-7AM. Sue likes to be there an hour or so before the night shift leaves to see how the evening went. Sixty-five women report to her; she manages an $8 million budget; and does the hiring, performance evaluations, productivity reports and equipment orders. In addition Sue puts out the fires. She says “the nurses take care of the patients and I take care of the nurses.”
Sue says that the two biggest challenges of her position are overcoming the budget constraints of health care (trying to make the dollar go as far as it can) and working with diversified families. “Making sure we appreciate and understand what the family is.” To address this Sue has started a “Family Advisory Council” that meets once a month to learn how to improve the health care experience for all of these diverse families.
The most rewarding and enjoyable aspect of her career is getting patient expressions of thanks, concerning their safe rewarding experience and great care in the OB / New Well-born Nursery.
Sue says the keys to success in this field are an enjoyment of people, patience, the ability to deal with conflict and a passion for maternity care.
Sue sites new medical advances like ultrasounds, blood tests, etc for a more prepared delivery room. Also, families have more control, such as timing of births with planned inductions. Safety has been improved such as having more secure facilities and lojack (banding) on babies.
Besides spending time with her family Sue loves to hike, play golf, bike and read a good mystery novel.