Many people dread going to work as they yearn longingly for their retirement years. Sue (Ward) Morin of Newport, a registered nurse in North Country Hospital’s Maternal Child Department is not one of those people. She loves her job helping bring babies into the world, and she has no dreams of retirement in the foreseeable future. “I love what I do; I just love it,” she said. “It is such a very intimate, private moment. I feel so privileged to be there. Being involved in a birth never gets old to me.” Thinking back on her 30 plus years as a nurse in the department she said she has no clue how many hundreds of babies she has helped deliver. Those babies include some of her brothers’ children.
In recognition of her outstanding work and dedication to her patients and to her profession Morin’s colleagues at North Country Health System recently recognized her with the 2009 Nursing Excellence Award.
Born and raised in Newport, in 1985 she earned her bachelors’ degree in nursing. Other then temporary assignments in other departments when there were no babies to deliver or care for in her department, her entire nursing career has been in the Maternal Child Department. Thinking back on her career and life in Maternal Child Health, Morin said it’s amazing how the concept of childbirth has changed over time.
Morin has earned the respect of her patients and colleagues. Her patients are her top priority, and she is a mentor to her colleagues, especially newer nurses.
“I have worked with Sue Morin since my first days at North Country Hospital. I have always been glad to have her working with me with a sick baby or an ill teenager. No one better exemplifies the really excellent nursing that our community receives every day at North Country Hospital – Dr. Thomas Moseley, Newport Pediatrics
Although Morin doesn’t remember every child she helped bring into the world she does remember a lot of them. It was real milestone moment for her when she helped a woman that she had delivered, give birth to her own baby.
While the birth of a child is a big event in the department, there is far more to the department, and the work of the nurses, than delivering babies. They also work with the mothers about proper breast feeding if they should decide to nurse. Morin is impressed by the growing number of people who understand the health benefits of nursing. In addition the nurses work with the parents, especially first time parents, about the proper care of their new family member. The nurses willingly try to answer any question directed at them by a new mother, even after the mother and baby have gone home.
“I never get tired of my job,” Morin said. “I work with a great group of people including the nurses and the doctors. It’s a wonderful hospital. I think we give wonderful care.”