Get to know Shayla Malone

Shayla Malone, BSN, RN, a nurse manager at our downtown campus, has spent nearly her entire career in labor and delivery departments. Now, she finds herself working in the hospital where she was born, and where she had all five of her own children.

I graduated from Iowa Wesleyan with my bachelor's degree and started my nursing career at Henry County Health Care Center in Mount Pleasant as a staff nurse on night shift in the OB department. I was at Henry County for 20 years, always in labor and delivery, and ultimately became the director. I thought I would spend my entire career at Henry County, but when they decided to stop delivering babies at the hospital about five years ago, I began working at UI Health Care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

After working in the NICU for a while, I realized how much I missed labor and delivery. When an opportunity came up at what was then Mercy Iowa City, I went for it. I was born at Mercy, and had all five of my kids at Mercy, so labor and delivery there held a special place for me. I started as a staff nurse in December 2022 and quickly learned this was where I wanted to be, and where I want to spend the rest of my career, working with this group of people! In March 2023, I took on the role of nurse manager and love leading this team.

I felt like I had an advantage during the transition, because I already knew a bit about how the university operates. In fact, after the transition, we were one of the first units that had university providers obtain privileges to practice downtown, and to alleviate congestion, we started admitting OB patients who were scheduled to deliver at the university.

The support we have received from the university is great—I have counterparts I work with regularly. My team has had to do a lot of adapting and changing— virtually every process has changed in some way— since February. I know change is hard for some. We have some nurses that have been here for 40-plus years, and through it all, I am proud to say we haven’t had anyone leave since the transition.

I love the community feel! After spending the first 20 years of my career in a community-based, rural hospital like Henry County, I immediately felt at home at the downtown campus. You see familiar faces saying hello each day as you walk down the hall. The quality and commitment to care is the same as the university campus, but it just feels different, and it suits me.

When I look back at my nursing career, so many things lined up perfectly for me to find myself here right now, exactly where I want to be!

Yes, I had all five kids at Mercy over the span of nine years. Living in rural Iowa, I didn’t have many options, but as it turned out, I didn’t need other options. Delivering all my kids at Mercy was right for our family. With each of my babies, we’d often see the same nurses and doctors still on the unit from the last time we delivered there, which felt welcoming and comforting. It was a different level of care when you feel like you know the provider from a previous visit. And it’s fun that now I get to work with those nurses and providers!

I was very young when I had my first child, and she was born with a cardiac defect that required time in the NICU. I still remember sitting on the edge of the bed with Dr. (Margaret) Smollen, and we were both crying because my daughter was so very sick. That is the kind of care that stands out in my memory so strongly. It was so personal, and I felt so well taken care of in one of the scariest times of my life. For me, that very personalized, high-touch experience was what made me continue to choose this hospital for all my deliveries.

It is a combination of a few things. The biggest is the acuity of the patients at the university. Given UI Health Care’s role within our state for high-risk pregnancy and births, it makes sense that you’ll see patients with more complex needs at the university campus. And with higher acuity comes more specialists, more people who are checking on the mother and baby, and sometimes longer stays.

At downtown, we are set up a little differently, as an integrated maternal-child department. That means we have cross-trained nursing across the spectrum of units that care for a mother and baby before, during and after the birth. This includes labor and delivery, the nursery, NICU, pediatrics, post-partum recovery, and OBGYN/surgical. We offer a continuity of care, so the same nurse may be with you during labor, providing post-partum care, and may also be your nursery nurse.

It is such a personal decision on where to deliver. I encourage patients to talk to their friends and neighbors about the experience to see how it aligns with their wishes, and with their provider to see what location might best meet their care needs. For patients who want UI Health Care providers and care protocols, but with a smaller, community-hospital feel, downtown is likely the best choice, but I am biased! The fact is, both the university campus and downtown campuses are great places to have a baby—it really is a personal choice.

Our five kids and four grandkids consume most of our time right now. Our youngest two, the twins, just started their second year of college. One of them is following in my footsteps and is entering the nursing program at Kirkwood—she wants to be a midwife. I also have another daughter who is a nurse. So it definitely runs in the family!

I was born and raised in southeast Iowa, and still live there today on an active farm. We have a huge passion for livestock and have spent a lot of time active with 4-H, exhibiting at fairs and shows. We have even won the Iowa State Fair twice for livestock. So, the farm keeps us busy, in addition to spending time with family.

I also try to walk outside daily. Living out in the country, it is so peaceful to walk without listening to anything but the sounds of nature. It is my time to de-stress and take care of myself. My 45-minute commute to and from Iowa City is also a nice time to decompress from the day.