Kathy Hill Success Sto

Kathy Gillenwater-Hill

I was definitely a nontraditional student.  As a young married woman with two children, going back to school was not on my to-do list.  However, when my eight-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes, I felt I needed to know how to care for her.  So, I went to nursing school.  I began my nursing education in the fall of 1983 at Southern WV Community College in Logan. My husband was a coal miner and I remember money was so tight that I packed my lunch most days and obtained a gasoline credit card so I would, for sure, have enough gas to make it to school every day. Those next two years were full of highs and lows with the pressures of parenting, maintaining a household, and relearning how to study again weighing heavily on my shoulders.  However, on May 18, 1985, I graduated with my Associate Degree in Nursing.  What a proud moment that was for me and my family.  The next hurdle was taking my state boards.  We were given a proctored written test that lasted several hours, two days in a row, in the Charleston Civic Center.  If restroom breaks were required, you were accompanied by a proctor.  Once the test was completed you would wait six weeks for your results to arrive in the mail.  What a relief it was when that envelope finally arrived and I had passed my state boards.  I was ready to start my nursing career.  I fell in love with nursing, it was everything I could have ever hoped for in a profession.  During the next fifteen years, I worked in emergency rooms, in the Boone County Health Department, the local nursing home, home health, and in a primary care facility.  Feeling completely comfortable in all of those roles was a testimony to the quality of education that I received at SWVCC.  I still remember being referred to as the “L.A. nurses” at Thomas Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Department.  They were referring to the Logan area nurses because they thought we were some of the best nurses there.  After twelve years of nursing, I decided to return to college to further my degree.  I returned to the Logan campus and was able to participate in the Marshall University 2+2 program to receive my BSN degree, which I completed in 1999.  I then took my GRE to obtain admission to the Family Nurse Practitioner program at Marshall University in Huntington.  I received my Master of Science in Nursing with a certification in Family Nurse Practitioner on May 5, 2001.  I continued caring for my patients as a Primary Care Provider and an Emergency Department Provider.  My nursing background is what has made me the Healthcare Provider that I am today.  I feel that I have that extra compassion and caring that comes with years of nursing experience.  As I find myself winding down in my career, I find myself focusing on educating the public on wellness and prevention.  My professional career has been very gratifying and I have Southern WV Community and Technical College to thank for that.  I am proud to be Southern alumni!