The Power of Perseverance
Personal Tragedy Inspires Holly Howell’s Commitment to Serve During her time at FNU, she was awarded the Jesse Smith Noyes Scholarship.
Holly Howell, MSN, CNM Even as a child, Holly Howell, MSN, CNM, Class 158, knew she wanted to be a nurse. It was a not-so-subtle nudge that pushed her in the right direction. “At a very young age, I have a very vivid memory of my aunt, heavily pregnant, asking me to feel her belly, and the baby made a really large movement,” Howell said. “In my head, it’s still the largest movement I’ve ever felt from a baby. I was fascinated and intrigued by it. From then on, I knew that I wanted to work in the maternal-child field. I wanted to deliver babies. It was my end goal. I’m really proud of myself that I made it, and I’m doing it.” Howell grew up in Nevada and earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Nevada State College, becoming the first woman in her family to graduate from college. With her focus on attending births and caring for pregnant women, she chose Frontier Nursing University to guide her to her goal of becoming a Certified Nurse-Midwife.
“Receiving the scholarship definitely helped me to complete the program at Frontier and also relieved some of the burdens of student loan debt,” she said. “Frontier prepared me really well for midwifery care and caring for patients. It has also given me a great network of midwifery friends and partners that I can lean on during stressful times and reach out to for questions or similar experiences. Those deep bonds were created during on-campus sessions and study groups as we went through the program together, leaning on each other during stressful times. Since then, we have been able to stay in contact via social media really well.” Today, Howell works as a nurse-midwife at two different locations in Las Vegas, both of which are part of the Women’s Health Associates of Southern Nevada. Her usual routine includes morning rounds at the hospital before arriving at the clinic between 8:45 and 9:00 a.m. The clinic includes three collaborating physician partners and two collaborating midwifery partners in addition to Howell. She sees between 25 and 35 patients per day. “They are primarily pregnant and OB patients, but I do
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also do birth control consults, menopausal care, annual exams, and IUD insertions,” she said. “We’re a very busy OB practice, and I see primarily pregnant people and postpartum visits. I also deliver quite a few babies every month, so I’m in and out of the hospital all the time. Yesterday (March 22, 2022), I actually set a record for myself and delivered five of my own babies in a 24hour period. I didn’t sleep much.”
Howell is a strong advocate for “empowering women, natural childbirth, breastfeeding, women’s reproductive rights, and health equality for the LGBTQIA+ community."
