July Employee of the Month helps heart surgery patients in ICU

“I always knew I wanted to go into nursing,” says Mary Wright, a staff nurse in Boone Hospital Center’s Intensive Care Unit. Born in Cork, Ireland, Mary moved to Dublin with her family when she was 13, before attending nursing school in London, where she lived for five years before coming to the United States.

“I was living in Texas and considering moving to Missouri, so my children would be close to their paternal side of the family, and I was looking into the Heart Program at Boone and thought it was a program that would be a perfect fit,” she says.

For almost 24 years, Mary has been with Boone, caring for patients in the surgical area of the intensive care unit. “My main responsibility is ensuring the safe recovery of open-heart patients and enabling them to return to full function,” she says.

Her role requires her to work closely with the hospital’s cardiothoracic surgeons, whom she greatly respects. “The doctors I work with are some of the best surgeons I have worked with,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot from them. If ever needed, I would choose to be in their care.”

Mary enjoys a strong rapport with her coworkers on the ICU and throughout the hospital, calling them her “family away from home.” She appreciates the high standard of patient care upheld by her coworkers and the motivation it has given her. “Some of my co-workers have helped shape me into the nurse I am today. They have been there since I first started at Boone and have guided and challenged me to become the best nurse I can be,” she says.

And, of course, Mary especially enjoys seeing the impact that the high standard of care by Boone Hospital surgeons and nurses has on her patients.

“I always enjoy seeing the patient I take care of leave the unit and progress in their health. There have been a few who have sent letters,” she says. “It’s most touching to know that I did all I could do make their time at Boone the best it could be.”

When she’s not caring for patients, Mary enjoys spending time with her daughters, whom she calls her greatest accomplishment. Nicola, her youngest, was a Boone Baby and is currently a nursing student at Central Methodist University. Her older daughter, Lacie, was born in Texas, graduated from the University Missouri and works in Boone County. She has shared her passion for travel with her daughters and has enjoyed providing them with the experiences of visiting where Mary grew up and other destinations, and she tries to travel at least once a year.

Mary also enjoys her free time fishing, attending concerts and theater performances, or reading a James Patterson novel. (“When I’m not catching up on sleep,” she notes.)

She currently lives with a pug named Yoda and two cats. “They make the country life a little sweeter,” she says.