Just over 20 years ago, Carrie McClure, RN, moved to Beaufort to be with her husband, a U.S. Marine she had met on vacation. They assumed their life here would be temporary.
“Instead, we bought a house and never left,” she says. “He can’t get me away from the sun and ocean.”
Circle of Life
During all their years in Beaufort, Carrie has worked at Beaufort Memorial, caring for patients first in the transitional care unit, which offers medically complex patients who no longer need acute care a bridge from hospital to home, and then as a nurse in the Beaufort Memorial Collins Birthing Center, where she felt called after the birth of her first child.
“I like being with the babies, and down here, I work in the Level II Nursery. I can work postpartum; I can do antepartum, labor and delivery — I can switch between all of them,” she says. “It’s nice to be able to see the process from beginning to end. You can be there with them when they’re having their baby and holding them for the first time, through bonding and helping them with feeding, and getting them at least a little prepared to be able to go home.”
The variety her job at Beaufort Memorial has allowed has also helped keep her engaged in her career.
“If you get burned out from something, you can switch within the hospital without having to completely start over,” Carrie says. “Even down here, even though we’re one unit, there are different compartments in that unit. You can cross-train and learn different skills and have a little more excitement in your life.”
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However, Carrie admits that working with babies is not always as happy as people think. She’s witnessed miscarriages and stillbirths, which are heartbreaking for everyone involved.
“We do a lot of supportive care for moms and families,” she says.
Workin’ on the Night Shift
Carrie has worked the night shift for her entire career at Beaufort Memorial. A self-described night owl, she says her energy levels have always peaked in the evening, so it doesn’t take much effort for her to work while most people are settling down.
She also enjoys the extra challenge — and joys — of working during a quieter time.
During the day, she says, the busyness of caring for patients and getting them ready for discharge can limit the amount of time nurses have with them. At night, there’s more opportunity to help them.
“At night, you’re tucking everybody in, and that’s where you have the chance to really help the mom bond with the baby,” Carrie says. “Plus, babies like to feed at night, so you get to really help mom with her breastfeeding and show her some tricks and different things to try and get the baby to latch on.”
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Plus, she adds, working on the night shift has given her a lot of hands-on experience.
“Babies don’t always wait for doctors!” she says.
Beyond that, Carrie enjoys the camaraderie of the night-shift team.
“In the middle of the night, it’s going to take a few minutes to get extra help in, so we work very closely, especially in emergencies,” she says. “Sometimes afterward, we’ll sit back and go, ‘I don’t know how we just made it through,’ but everybody steps in and does their part of the job, and it’s awesome.”
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