Impacting Rural Communities
Patty Coldiron Fills Urgent Need with Urgent Care
Patty Coldiron, MSN, FNP The inspirational success stories of FNU graduates are many. Very few, however, start with dropping out of high school. Nonetheless, that is the way the story of how Patty Coldiron, MSN, FNP, Bridge 102, opened Hometown Urgent Care in January begins.
Born and raised in rural Harlan County, Kentucky, Coldiron dropped out of high school and, at the age of 16, gave birth to her son Joshua, who was born with spina bifida.
I received my licensed practical nurse degree. When the local community college bought the technical college, they came to me and asked if I would sign up for their Registered Nurse program.”
“He is the reason I went into nursing,” Coldiron said. “I wanted to know everything I could medically to be able to help him. Having knowledge in the field of nursing allowed me to help him physically and mentally, giving him the mindset he can do everything everyone else does, just a little differently.”
In 2003, she graduated from Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College with an associate’s degree in nursing. She worked in several areas, including on the medical/surgical floor and the ER, but her primary area was home health. With her career and goals coming into focus, Coldiron joined two of her friends in applying to FNU.
Three years after Joshua’s birth, Coldiron went back to school and earned her GED. At 25, she began working as a Certified Nursing Assistant and worked for four years before being laid off. Undeterred, she kept moving forward. “I went to my local Community Action Agency and applied for the displaced worker’s program,” Coldiron said. “I was accepted and through that program,
“The knowledge I had from going to Frontier, without a doubt helped me care for him again, and let me keep him 14 more months after the accident.”
“We all three were accepted, but I was the only one who decided to follow through,” said Coldiron, who graduated in 2015. During her last term, Joshua was in a motor vehicle accident and spent nearly a month in the ICU.
The 2021 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of Hometown Urgent Care. 10 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin
“The days I had to work my mom (Pauline Boggs) would stay with him,” Coldiron said. “I sat in the hospital with him and would try to study and get ready for my boards. With the help of family and God, I finished and he eventually came home, but never the same. The knowledge I had from going to Frontier, without a doubt helped me care for him again, and let me keep him 14 more months after the accident.”
