Sue Gump: tireless nurse, compassionate soul

Longtime McGirk resident Sue Gump is the Russellville High School nurse.
Longtime McGirk resident Sue Gump is the Russellville High School nurse.

Longtime McGirk resident Sue Gump has memories apt to make a person laugh and cry, sometimes in the same story.

She also has a work ethic that doesn't quit and a sense of compassion that has carried her through a lifetime of motherhood and hard work, whether serving in an ambulance, prison or high school.

This mother of two, grandmother of five and great-grandmother of four has assisted a woman giving birth in a car during a snowstorm and comforted a woman as she died. Gump has cared for prison inmates and school students, and still has energy left to cook dinner and correct her husband's fashion choices.

"I've had fun times, and I've had good times, and I've had sad times," Gump said. "(What motivates me) is my faith, my love and my compassion. I don't know; it's just who I am."

The Russellville High School nurse said she loves caring for students, and they are reminiscent of her younger family members. Gump wanted to be a school nurse for a long time, but her career took a very different direction after she graduated from the nursing program.

Gump said she was a stay-at-home mother when her cousin went into a coma after an accident. The incident inspired her to enter the medical field, and she helped form the Mid-Mo Ambulance District in 1975 as the secretary treasury.

Gump studied to be an EMT and became a paramedic. During this time she woke up every day and drove a morning school bus route before going to work at a doctor's office until the afternoon bus route began. She then went home and cooked her family dinner before heading out for the late shift in an ambulance. She worked all three positions, plus a few odd jobs, and raised her family for 14 years.

"Some nights, I got some (sleep). Some nights, not much," Gump said. "But that's just life. What you're here for is to take care of your family."

Gump eventually gave up the school bus driving and doctor's office jobs to attend nursing school at State Fair Community College, but she still worked nights responding to medical emergencies. She even came to work with her youngest son, J. Gump. He became a Moniteau County sheriff's deputy and responded to many of the same emergencies as his mother.

"He'd pull up and say, 'Hey, Mom, will you get me that,' and everyone would look at him like, 'What did you call her?'" she said with a big smile.

However, there also were difficult times working together. When dangerous events arose in the area, Gump would listen to the police scanner to make sure her son was OK and that her family wasn't part of the emergencies to which she was responding, like during the James Johnson shooting spree of 1991.

"I went to school with James Johnson and knew him all my life," she said. "My son had been sent to the area of the shooting, and I was so relieved when I heard his voice on the scanner."

Gump graduated from nursing school in 1991 and left the ambulance service to take a job in the emergency room of Still Regional Medical Center (now Capital Region Medical Center), where she worked for about a year before she became clinic coordinator for outpatient services. While working at the hospital, she found the time and energy to earn a bachelor's degree in business from William Woods University in 1996.

With her business degree in hand, she headed to the Jefferson City Correctional Center to become director of nursing. Gump said she was inspired to help inmates while working at a hospital. She said correctional center inmates were often sent to the ER during emergencies, and she remembers a coworker telling her, 'Just remember, somewhere there is a mother who loves them.'

"In health care, you are compassionate, so that really stuck with me," Gump said.

She eventually became an administrator and stayed at the prison until 2000.

"After giving it a good strong effort, I just felt like it was a really hard environment," she said. "I just felt like I knew what I wanted to do, so that's when I went to work at Jefferson City Medical Group as a clinic coordinator of internal medicine."

Gump managed 13 offices and 47 nurses. She said it wasn't all that different from working at the prison because she was still working with people.

After more than 13 years at JCMG, Gump finally had the opportunity to recall a dream she had long ago, when she was still prioritizing money to care for her family.

"I always wanted to be a school nurse, but the pay would not pay my student loans off, so I had to bypass that," Gump said. "So after being out in the real world for all those years, I had the opportunity to be a school nurse all those years, so here I am."

While her days of rushing down the highway toward medical emergencies are over, she now helps students know what to do if an emergency occurs in their school. In her office, there are several CPR dummies ready for Gump to show students how to become the lifesavers of tomorrow. It's a tough job, but Gump has always shown that compassionate people can find a way to fulfill the duty.