Kelly Holland

Me and Elizabeth Copeland at December 2009 Duke School of Nursing graduation.

As usual I’ve taken a back seat to this website, but it is now time to update. After an entire fall, the last of my nursing program, and a holiday season, I’m temporarily a Bozeman, MT resident again.

I spent my last semester as a nursing student split between the Durham VA medical Center and Duke University’s Emergency Department. After 168 hours in the Emergency Department I had solidified my passion for emergency nursing. I fell in love with IVs, foley catheters, and heart monitors. I some how finished my last semester with all A’s and actually graduated in December…yipee! I’m a real life nurse graduate, and as of January 14th–after the daunting NCLEX exam–I’m a real life nurse with a real license.

Duke Nursing Class 2009

Now if I could only get a job I’ll be set. Who would have guessed it would be so difficult to find a nursing job as a new graduate. Nursing shortage, what?!  My original hope was to find my first job in a larger hospital in a metropolitan area, preferably in an emergency internship. That dream lasted about  two seconds when after exhausting the West Coast I realized I had to broaden my search. At this point I’ve looked high and low, big and small, and within every department. I’ve found that during these economic times it really comes down to who you know…and that can be tough when I don’t seem to know any nurses in the areas I want to go…I don’t know many nurses period. I definitely chose the worst year to graduate from nursing, or from any school for that matter. I only hope that my fellow nursing students are having better luck than I. Keep on truck’n!

Christmas was magical as usual at home, and as white as ever. Dav, Nanuq, and I spent the holidays with my parents, brother, grandma, and uncle Bob. We skied, skated, caroled, and drank a lot of hot buttered rum.

Holland caroling party.

Oh Nanuq…the cutest Christmas dog ever.

Dad’s favorite Christmas gift…thanks Uncle Tim! I was jealous.

Dav and Dad’s famous train.

Grandma and Mom caroling.

Grandma’s Christmas earrings…made by yours truly.

Unfortunately little bro Wade decided to top off the holidays with a shattered femur. After deciding to build a booter in the backcountry with very little snowpack, he came down hard on a rock. After three hours of painful waiting, he was heli evacuated to the Bozeman Deaconess Hospital. Three surgeries later, compartment syndrome, my father’s wrath, and New Years Eve hooked up to an IV, he was discharged to spend the month of January at home. While he was bummed to be couch-bound at home, I was happy to have a buddy to keep me company during my job hunt. Not to mention, he was my guinea pig patient…I couldn’t wait to practice my injections with his daily Lovenox. It should be noted that since Wade broke himself two days before my father’s 60th-birthday heli ski trip–which included Wade and me–and since we had to cancel the entire week of really deep, interior B.C. powder, he owes us one. When he becomes the rich business man I know he’ll be, he can get us back…I’ll be waiting.

So, here I am, still in Bozeman, the unexpected roommate of my parents. While Dav sits back in Durham to get what work he can, patiently waiting for me to find a job, I continue to hunt. Application after application, rejection after rejection, I’m still looking. I’m crossing my fingers and loving my mother’s home cooking at the same time. I would love income as soon as possible, but I do love home while I have it.

Hylite trails with Mom, Dad, Nanuq, and Pearl