Name: Hailey Rushing
Location: Centennial, CO
Professional Industry: Nursing
Company: Children’s Hospital Colorado
Job Title: Registered Nurse
WIXII-ISM™ FROM HAILEY RUSHING:
“Be yourself. I grew up in a small town and it took me the better part of college to find myself and who I was meant to be and once I did and was comfortable with that, everything else fell into place.”
“No one has all the answers, so just keep going and things will eventually work out and get easier. Also, the amount of information we have at our fingertips is mind blowing, so with a little effort, you might just find what you are looking for…except medical diagnosis, don’t look online for those, you’ll just walk away depressed and thinking you have cancer…!”
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION:
Meet our featured Wixii™, Hailey Rushing. She is 30 years old and mother to Jackson, 15 months. She and her husband, Matt, were married 2 years before they welcomed their son into the world. She received a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a B.S. in Nursing from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, College of Nursing. She currently works as a nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Children’s Hospital Colorado and directly cares for children with life-threatening illnesses and/or monitors those children at serious risk for life threatening complications; she is part of a multi-disciplinary and family-centered care team. Her husband is a marketing manager with PaySimple.
Hailey and her husband equally share the breadwinning, caregiving, and homemaking duties, and she devotes 40 per week to her career. She rates her job satisfaction level as 10 (she says, “I was meant to be a nurse!”) and work-life satisfaction level as 8 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest). She describes the policies of her workplace as quite work-life friendly because she self-schedules; however, as a more junior nurse, she has to work some nights, which can be rough. Hailey is a people person and a good communicator who loves her job because she is able to reach out and relate to people during difficult times; she witnesses incredible children and their resilient spirits on a daily basis. In a typical week, she spends over 50 hours on caregiving; 20 hours on cooking, cleaning, and her son’s extracurricular activities; and less than 10 hours on laundry and shopping.
To maintain her own well-being, she eats well and connects with loved ones daily. Weekly, she pursues hobbies (mainly reading) and catches up on sleep. Monthly, she spends time with friends, enjoys a pampering, and travels. She has opportunities to volunteer through her work and participates in projects such as Habitat for Humanity and the soup kitchen.
WORK-LIFE MIX:
Describe your career path to this point and any envisioned future changes.
After graduating with a B.S. in Business Administration, I worked in downtown Denver as an executive recruiter. One day, I was working on a project in the healthcare industry and realized that I was not meant to sit behind a desk on a computer or phone all day but instead needed to do something that enabled me to feel like I was more directly changing lives. That night, I applied to nursing school and that was that. I switched professions before even considering children, but my current career is much more open and accommodating to a healthy work-life mix. Best decision I have ever made, other than marrying my husband of course 🙂 I plan to stay in my profession for as long as I can; the only change I would consider (after getting more experience) would be to become a flight for life nurse.
My current work-life mix is possible (manageable) because of…
I have the best husband in the world. I only work three days a week and on those days, he takes care of our little one 100%. I leave before he wakes and don’t get home until after bedtime, so without my amazing husband I would not be able to keep my career. I also have the best daycare. They allow me to only use and pay for the actual days I need, plus they are very loving and devoted to my little one. Lastly, I have a college student (freshman at University of Denver) who babysits from time to time—because even my husband and I need an occasional break! She is great with Jackson and is very flexible. Also, I think it is important to note that we have wonderful families, but they live far away. When they are here they are awesome, but mostly my husband and I have always found a way to make it work.
In what ways did your work-life mix change after having children?
My husband and I tried not to let having a child change our life. We depend on each other more and have to make plans for nights out in advance. We have less time for the things we did prior, but we always try to make time. I think my husband probably had the biggest adjustment. He didn’t know how to do the laundry or dishes before…but he does now…!
Describe a current “day in your life” from waketime to bedtime:
6:00am: Wake (we are up and at ‘em early with the little one).
7:00-11:30am: Jackson eats breakfast and I catch up on the dishes and cleaning the kitchen. In the morning, we mess around the house a little and then we either run errands (which include grocery store, shopping, cleaning, etc…) or have Jackson time (Music class, Little Monkey Business, swim, etc..).
11:30am: Lunch.
12:30-2:30pm: Nap.
3:00pm: Either errands or Jackson time.
5:00pm: Dinner.
6:00-7:00pm: Daddy gets home and we have family time/play.
7:00pm: Bath.
7:30pm: Jackson’s Bedtime. This works great for my husband and I because we have 7:30-10:00pm for alone time.
10:00pm: Our bedtime.
Of course, this is our schedule on one of my days off. On the days I work, I leave before my boys are up. My husband gets up and gets himself and the baby ready for the day, drops him off at daycare, and goes to work. After work, he picks him up, comes home, feeds him dinner, gives him a bath, puts him to bed, and then has dinner ready for me when I get home at 8:00-8:30pm. Now that’s a day! And, a husband!
On a daily basis, what would you do and what would you give away?
Hmmm, I would love to not change a thing about my job, but be able to help my husband out more on the days I work. It is a lot for him and while he never complains (okay, not never but you know…), I miss my baby so much on those days, especially if I work two or three days in a row. And, of course, I could always give away laundry and the dishes. But I love every minute I get with my amazing little man.
WIXII™ WISDOM:
Share your key(s) to maintaining order (“managing it all”) and any tools you highly recommend:
Being organized…at least in my mind (these days I have taken to sticky notes). I make lists for everything, even the simplest of trips to the grocery store to ensure that nothing is left behind. Letting others help—I am not good at relying on others but I am working on it.
My husband and I somehow get everything done, but we are still looking for order, so I am open for suggestions on this one. Some days, I feel like I am a sticky note away from dropping the ball. I look at other mothers who seem to have it all figured out and think to myself…they have to have bad days too right? I think for us, communication is key! My schedule is so different all the time so my husband and I touch base every day about the next and only keep one week at a time in our minds. We have a calendar that all big things must be written in so that the pieces don’t fall. I try to do menu planning ahead of time, and when I do it works well, but then other times I can’t find the time and we make it up as we go. I wish I were better at this. Also, coming up with new creative dinner ideas is my weakness, but thanks to Pinterest I am getting better.
I LOVE the Super Baby Food book by Ruth Yaron, as I made all my own baby food. Pinterest always gives me new ideas for things to try with Jackson and recipes. Oh, and the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg was my bible when he was young. I also just found an app called ArtKive so that I can store every wonderful piece of Jackson’s artwork without having to become a hoarder of sorts. But again, I would love to see what others say on this very subject because I am always looking for new ideas.
What advice would you give an earlier version of yourself?
I think I would have tried to accomplish more “world experiences” at a younger age. Studied abroad one more time, done the Peace Corps, backpacked Europe. My husband and I got jobs right out of college and our first dog followed suit making some of those things impossible. I also wished I would have known what I wanted in life and gone straight for nursing because I would be just that much further down the road in my career. Lastly, I would try to keep in touch with more people along the way no matter how time consuming that can be. I have met some wonderful people in my life journey, some I keep in touch with and others I don’t. We have so much to learn from each other that I wished that I would have kept in touch with a few more. One more thing…be yourself. I grew up in a small town and it took me the better part of college to find myself and who I was meant to be and once I did and was comfortable with that, everything else fell into place.
Is there anything else you would like to share regarding your work-life mix?
No one has all the answers, so just keep going and things will eventually work out and get easier. Also, the amount of information we have at our fingertips is mind blowing, so with a little effort, you might just find what you are looking for…except medical diagnosis, don’t look online for those, you’ll just walk away depressed and thinking you have cancer…!
