SEARCY — Four years ago during Stephanie Wade’s first delivery as an obstetrics nurse, she said she was terrified.
“You’re thinking the whole time, ‘Am I going to be good enough?’ and, ‘Are my skills good enough to assess to know what I’m doing?’”
But Wade said if you didn’t have that worry, you wouldn’t be a good nurse. Wade, a registered nurse and certified lactation counselor with White River Medical Center’s maternity department, was named the hospital’s March 2015 Employee of the Month and 2015 Employee of the Year. She said she loves the field and her role.
“It’s wonderful,” she said. “I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s exactly what I want to be doing with my life.”
Before becoming an OB nurse, Wade, who received her nursing degree from the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville and her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Texas at Arlington, worked in surgery for nine years. She said landing the job as a nurse at White River Medical Center four years ago was a dream come true.
“I always knew I wanted to do this,” she said. “I didn’t think I could at first, so I spent the first half of my life in secretarial and accounting. And then after I had my son in 2000, I decided I was going to go ahead and go to school for my nursing [degree] and spent time doing that.”
According to the White River Health System, Wade was recognized as the March 2015 Employee of the Month for her positive attitude. She said she wasn’t expecting the award.
“That was exciting because I didn’t even realize people knew that I was here,” she said.
Each White River Medical Center Employee of the Month votes for one of the winners to be named the Employee of the Year at the end-of-the-year banquet. As part of that award, Wade received a check and a special designated parking spot, which she shares with co-workers on her days off.
“I never expected to hear my name called,” she said. “My husband and everybody said you would have thought I won the Publisher’s Clearinghouse the way I acted. It was an honor. I was never so honored in my life.”
Wade said she thinks she received the award because she cares for her fellow staff members the same way she cares for patients.
“I try to always have a smile,” she said. “I love my job. I try to promote the positivity, and I think that shows.”
As someone who has experience with more than 100 deliveries, Wade said a typical day at work is actually atypical.
“Like this morning, I had planned on coming in and having this labor,” she said. “We thought we were going to labor all day. Well I come in, get a report, and boy, we’re having the baby in 25 minutes. Forget this ‘long labor day.’ You can start out with one, and people walk in the door two or three at a time with their water broke, and you will be delivering two or three babies at once.”
Wade’s nursing style uses a mix of bonding and humor. She also enjoys educating patients on how their bodies change throughout and after pregnancy.
“I like to get to know them, not just on a nurse-patient relationship,” she said. “I want to know about them and their family and just be part of their day. I want to make them feel like I’m part of their family, and I’m taking care of them as if I would if they were my daughter.”
Wade spends about 24 to 48 hours with each patient as they stay at the hospital.
“But I see all my patients in Walmart, and I don’t even remember them half the time, and they say, ‘Stephanie!’ and show me their babies,” she said. “So I guess, really, I have a lifelong relationship with them in a way because of that. I remember my delivery nurses very well, and that’s been a long time ago.”
Wade, who typically works three to five days a week, has been spending recent weeks working four days a week. A few of her co-workers are on maternity leave, and other nurses have been working more to help.
“We actually have babies among our group, too,” she said. “It’s actually like we’re all family.”
Her family of co-workers at the medical center have helped Wade grow as a nurse, she said.
“We have the best teamwork, support,” she said. “We’re all like sisters up here; we really are. We depend on each other. We’re there for each other. Even though you’re the primary nurse for a labor, you’re never alone.”
While working with new mothers and infants is “wonderful,” Wade said, it can present a lot of stressful situations that some people may not realize.
“People think it’s the happy time, having a baby, but they don’t see the underlying things that are really scary, the things that could go wrong,” she said. “Watching out during the labor, you’re watching the monitor, making sure the baby is oxygenated and doing fine with that. So you’re stressed over all that. And then, when they get here, and the baby is healthy and the moms are good and everything, and you know everything’s going well, it’s just a sense of relief and accomplishment. And then you’ve got the times when people come in and it’s not so happy. It’s not happy at all, and you’re there for them.”
Some hopeful nurses may carry certain misconceptions about the role, too, she explained.
“A lot of the misconception is, ‘Oh, we’re delivering babies; we’re going to have a baby and sit and rock them all day,’” she said. “Honestly, we don’t ever hardly get to hold the babies. We get the baby, and mom gets them. We do our checks on them, but we don’t sit and rock them. That’s what our moms are for.”
Wade said nurses are also constantly educating themselves.
“As a nurse, you’re not just only here for the patients, but you’re also always wanting to provide what’s called evidence-based nursing,” she said. “It’s important to keep up with your education, to keep up with the changes going on in health care, to be able to give the best care to your patients.”
She could work in any hospital department and feel at home, but Wade said OB is her true home. She said she plans to be there “forever.”
Wade encourages hopeful nurses to visit other nurses in their field of interest and learn about how fun it is.
“The best part about being a nurse is making a difference in someone’s life,” she said. “That’s it — knowing that I’ve been there to help them through either happy times, tough times, anything, just knowing that I make a difference. That’s what’s so important.”
Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.