By Jane Keller Gordon, Contributing Writer
Westborough – When Dr. Maureen Hillier was in kindergarten, she already knew that she wanted to be a nurse. According to Hillier, she has always followed the strong work ethic of her Irish immigrant parents — her dad, a municipal worker, and her mom, a licensed practical nurse (LPN).
Hillier has added several initials after her name: a DNP (doctorate in nurse practice), MSN (Master of Science in nursing), RN (registered nurse), CCRN (critical care registered nurse), and CLNC (certified legal nurse consultant).
Her most recent degree, a DNP from Regis College, was completed in June.
The arc of Hillier’s career has taken her from a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Rhode Island, earned in 1987, to 25 years and counting at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Boston Children’s Hospital, to her current status as a nurse educator.
Hillier said that her connection to Boston Children’s happened on a whim, when a friend encouraged her to apply for an opening in their bone marrow unit in 1989.
About the PICU, where Hillier now works about 20 hours a week, she said, “It’s broader in scope and, in the end, it really opened up more avenues for nursing education – it’s a specialty within a specialty, it covers every body system.”
When asked how she copes with the stress of nursing terminally ill children, Hillier remembered a patient named Gus.
“He was a 17-year-old who helped me figure out how to compartmentalize,” she said. “I figured out that what you do in the moment is get through and you grieve, but you have to keep it together, and support the patient and family through the process.”
She added, “Lots of PICU patients have short stays, and get better.”
Hillier has lived in Westborough for the past 20 years, and credits her commute as time to decompress. Her husband John is a seventh-grade science teacher in Millbury, and Westborough High School boys’ varsity soccer head coach. The couple has four children, aged 15, 17, 20 and 23.
According to Hillier, her path to becoming a teacher happened on a whim, too. In 2007, she was asked to teach six undergraduate nursing students in a pediatric clinical setting. That experience motivated her to earn her master’s and doctorate degrees.
She is currently a senior lecturer at Curry College, although this semester she is teaching at Northeastern University.
“There is institutional incentive to hire newly licensed nurses who are less expensive, and who work in high risk, highly emotional clinical settings without the necessary skills in their tool box,” she said.
To deal with this challenge, for her capstone project at Regis, Hillier created three hospital-based simulation case scenarios for newly licensed nurses that involve staff and actors who play parents and patients.
When asked what is next, Hillier says that she would like to land a full-time faculty position that will allow her one day a week at the Children’s Hospital PICU.
“Things there change so fast that if I’m not there for three months, I won’t be able to go back,” she said.