Nurse Director Jen Hyland on Faith in the Workplace

By Lauren Rose Correa, January 10, 2025

Jennifer Hyland is Nurse Director at an area hospital in South Jersey. Her active and demanding job requires her to act as the leader of a neuroscience/cardiac medicine unit. Being a nurse director is a challenge that Jen gladly takes on! With her passion for mentoring and her compassionate care for patients, she tackles this responsibility, bringing empathy and life experience to the table.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Jen in her cozy home and chat with her about her job as a nurse director. I learned so much from this conversation with her, and I hope you will too! Read on to learn more about what it means to be a nurse director, how Jen achieves life-work balance, and what qualities help her to do her job well.

Q: Walk me through a typical day with you on the job.

My main job day-to-day is operations of the unit. That involves the flow of the patients that come in and out, visiting all of the patients and ensuring they understand their plan of care and answering any questions they may have, and collaborating with the nurses, doctors, and the different providers about their plan of care. I have about 20 staff members a day that work. There are about 105 total, and I’m the “mom” to all of them. I help them to play well together. I educate them, I mentor them, and then I’m also responsible for some administrative tasks such as payroll and scheduling.

Q: What is the biggest challenge that comes along with your job and how do you tackle this challenge?

The biggest challenge in my life right now is work-life balance, and that is because I have 24/7 accountability for the unit. Even today in church, I had to excuse myself and go out and call a local hotel to get a discounted rate for my nurses to have the option of staying overnight in case this big snowstorm comes.

And if they have a problem – yesterday [was my day off], and there was a staffing issue where they were feeling overwhelmed and called me for support, which I welcome. I spent a lot of time trying to get more staff to come in and help them. That takes away from my family time. It’s so rare that [my entire family is] all here together. Even though my children are grown, we still are a family unit here. Feeling guilty about taking away from my family time to give to my professional life is my biggest struggle right now.

[I maintain work-life balance by setting] very clear boundaries, understanding that those boundaries are situational. If there is an emergency at work and things are tied down at home, then I’m going to [help at work]. But for the most part, my plan is to get to work at 8am and walk out the door at 4pm, unless something bad is happening.

[Another way I achieve work-life balance is by] equipping my staff to handle problems on their own. [I teach them] to identify what kind of a problem they need me for and what they can handle on their own. [I try to] give them all the resources they need to deal with things like that. If people do overstep that boundary professionally, I kindly let them know that they did and tell them what they can do differently next time. [Also,] leaving my computer at work has been huge, and taking my work email off my phone has been huge.

Q: What is your favorite aspect of your job?

Mentoring! I love mentoring. I was a teacher before I was a nurse, so educating is in me. When I see a professional nurse, patient care technician, unit secretary, or even one of my environmental services workers who wants to advance their career, I [love to offer support]. I’m a huge believer in feedback. I love to give feedback. I like to get feedback from people, because I consider it a gift; I don’t consider it criticism or talking down to somebody. That’s because of the way that I deliver it. I deliver feedback in a way that will excite people and [encourage] them to do better, rather than beating them down with it. It’s not criticism – it is feedback to help them grow. I just love that! [I love watching people grow and move into leadership positions.]

Q: What advice would you give to someone else looking to step into the same vocation as you?

Nursing leadership is not something I intended to do. I intended to be a nurse. This position has allowed me to marry my two loves together: the education and mentoring [aspect] with patient care and helping our community with healthcare.

What I would say to people is this: I don’t think I could have done this if I didn’t have the life experience that I have right now. It’s not only work experience and educational experience [that’s important]: it’s life experience also. I know that I can handle some of the issues that I do now because I’ve had a lot of life experiences. I would say, don’t be so fast to [rush into a leadership position]. Get a good foundation in nursing and in your life.

[The stage that my family is in also enables me to do this job well]. [This job is] so much more doable for me, rather than for some peers that have the same job as me [and also have] little kids at home. Their kids are getting sick, and they’re having to leave work. I can’t imagine how stressful that is! Life experience and timing is everything. Don’t go for it just because it’s available! Everything has to be right in your life, because this is a huge time commitment, and you’ve got a lot of responsibility.

Q: What qualities about you do you believe help you to do your job well?

[This is not a trait] that I’ve always had, but I’ve worked a long time on being responsive instead of reactive. And that is so helpful! Part of what has helped me [to develop this characteristic] is having a daughter with a special needs and studying behavioral health and behavioral modification. [I’ve learned] not to get so excitable and stressed out in a stressful situation, because my job is literally life and death. I’m in an inpatient, acute care setting in a hospital where there’s life and death every day. So being responsive to situations instead of just reacting has helped me.

Also, being patient [is key]. I have a lot of patience, which definitely helps. Being a listener and somebody who truly allows people to speak is important. I’m listening to them rather than thinking about what I am going to say next. I think that being fair, honest, and consistent is important. I literally have those words written down on a piece of paper at my desk to remind me. I’m dealing with my patients, life and death situations, and then I’m dealing with my staff who’s taking care of them. I have 105 of them, so I have to remain fair and consistent and as honest as I can be with them.

Q: How has your walk with the Lord influenced your career choices?

I think that I’m very fortunate in my career choice, because it’s probably one of the very few careers that I can bring my walk with the Lord right into it. I tell people all the time, “I’m a Jesus girl, what do you have going on? I’ll pray for you.” They know that about me. In nursing, we treat the patient as the whole person. [We care for them] not just physically, mentally, and psychologically, but also spiritually. I’m allowed to go in and pray with our patients. If they have a Bible laying there, the first thing I say to them is, “Can I pray with you?”

[I don’t just pray for them,] but for my staff too. Any time they come to me with a problem or an issue that they’re having, I ask them, “Can I pray for you?” I’ve never had one person say no. Because I’m going to be bold and speak out like that, I really need to make sure that my walk is matching my talk. If I’m going to put it out there, then you better believe I have to be really careful about what I’m saying and doing. It’s a ministry. If I have patients who are close to death, I go right up to them and give them the plan of salvation in their ear to make sure they’re hearing it before they go.

[This is my ministry in church too.] I never mind when somebody at church comes up to me and asks me a medical question. My mom did that for our church when I was growing up. My parents went to our church and my mom was the one who everybody called. And now I feel so good that people feel comfortable to reach out and ask my opinion.

Q: How do you balance your career with your personal life?

Like I said earlier, [I do this by] putting down boundaries and trying really hard to keep them. My family doesn’t ever put pressure on me, but [my husband] Todd will support me [when I work from home by gently reminding me that,] “You worked long enough. Come on, put it away.”

I just finished my Master’s degree, and that was hard because it was a personal thing, but it’s also a professional thing. I did it on my time here at home. And I just would balance that too. I still always made time for my family. It takes a lot of self-control and discipline to do that. I learned it the hard way years ago, so now it’s gotten easier and easier for me as time’s gone on.

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