Doctor retiring from Touchette Regional Hospital

Sulbrena Day, RN, PhD, started working at St. Mary’s Hospital in East St. Louis as an LPN in 1974. Her 46-year career has remained dedicated to the region she grew up in.

The executive at Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville will retire on Dec. 31.

After becoming an RN, she entered critical care medicine and started her path up the ranks at St. Mary’s, as director of nursing, vice president of nursing, eventually helping guide the transition to Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital. Advancing her educational journey, she earned a BSN, MSN and then a doctorate in health care.

At Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville, her hometown, Day began as vice president of Ancillary Services and then became chief operating officer in 2016. In 2018 she added the title of chief nursing officer.

Day describes her job as “very rewarding.” Having families of past patients still remember her is a sign that she did the best she could.

“Do your job and do it well,” she likes to say.

After retirement, Day will continue to teach nursing at Midwest Career Source in Belleville and as a member of the faculty at McKendree University in Lebanon.

Regarding remaining at St. Mary’s and Touchette all these years and about nurses working at Touchette now, she says, “We all have choices where we work, and the Touchette nurses are here because they care for this community. They are here by choice. They care, and they know many of the patients because they are also serving in their community.”

When asked what she is most proud of, she cites the impact that she has had on the many nurses and individuals she has mentored and continues to mentor.