Nicole Holuba '07

Nicole Holuba '07
Keeping People Healthy and Well Cared For

While majoring in health sciences at Gettysburg, I developed a good understanding of the human body. My classes in biology, chemistry, physics and psychology helped me to determine that I wanted to apply all of this knowledge to something real. In high school I became a certified E.M.T. for my local ambulance squad. Making sure the patient was comfortable was always important to me. I brought this training to the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore during my Gettysburg College Center for Public Health internship over winter break in 2006. Actively participating in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit there was the deciding factor in knowing that I wanted to take advantage of Gettysburg's affiliation program with the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing program.

With the help and support of my Gettysburg advisor and the Health Science department, I was accepted into the accelerated thirteen -month program at Hopkins. I entered the program in May '07, officially graduated from Gettysburg this past fall, and will obtain a second B.S. degree in nursing from Hopkins this July. While at Hopkins I received the Fuld Fellows Leadership Award in clinical nursing and am now doing research with an Oncology Nurse Practitioner in investigating the incidence of infection of  PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter)  lines in oncology patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I am registered to continue in Hopkins' M.S. program to receive my Pediatric Nurse Practitioner license.

Gettysburg ignited the flame of my desire to pursue this medical career. I am inundated with lots of class work and clinical work at Hopkins, but I still try to make the time to return to campus as much as possible to enjoy some of the senior experience. I miss my Delta Gamma sorority sisters and lots of other professors and friends on campus, but when I know there is a hospital patient that I am responsible for, I am reminded that I am doing great work. I will walk with my class in the graduation ceremony this spring and I know I will always be true to Gettysburg for preparing me for this incredible venture.

Giving back is one of Gettysburg College's missions and for me this rings true:  Gettysburg has prepared me to be an active leader in today's world with the value of a lifelong commitment to service. My philosophy of health care seems to underline the goals of all of us:  we all want to lead happy, healthy, lives and with good preventative care and good care when we are in trouble, plus some compassion, we will endure.