Microbiology, Infection Prevention, and Never Giving Up on Your Dreams
“Oh no, what have I done?” That was Heather Kirby’s first thought after she was accepted into the nursing program at Texas Woman’s University.
With a long history as a healthcare professional, Heather had fallen in love with infection prevention. As a lab manager in microbiology, her job was to analyze and identify infections before a patient was admitted into the hospital, or track them afterward.
“I saw so many people with infections that I wanted to help prevent them in the first place,” she says.
One of the first in her family to go to college, Heather already had three degrees, but infection prevention is a position traditionally held by a nurse. After several years, despite not having a nursing degree, Heather went to work at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center — McKinney, where she is the Infection Prevention Manager.
Because of the difficulties she had getting into that field, she decided to pursue a nursing degree. Yet going back to school while working full-time, and being a wife and mother, is challenging.
“No one told me I needed to go back to school,” she says. “I kept thinking about it for several years and it never really went away, so one day I just decided to start the background work I needed to be accepted.”
Heather passed the exam for the nursing program at Texas Woman’s University, thankful for the nontraditional student program that works around her professional life and family needs. She and her husband, along with their two daughters, live in Plano, Texas, though Heather’s family is from Oklahoma.
Heather and her husband attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant. For her nursing degree, Heather applied for and received a 2018 Second Chance scholarship through the Chahta Foundation.
“I am very honored that there is a group of people that believe in the lives of other Choctaws enough to support them and help them make their dreams come true,” she says. “There are a lot of people doing worthwhile things, and the fact that they chose me to receive this scholarship is a great honor.”
Heather will graduate with her bachelor’s in nursing August 2020 and is looking toward the possibility of a master’s in nursing.
She is living out her inspiring educational journey in front of her daughters. Her oldest daughter is in college for nursing as well. Her youngest is still in high school.
“I’m super proud of them, and they are proud of me,” Heather says. “They see me working and going to school, and they think I’m strong enough to do that. It’s a good example for them to not give up on your dreams, and that you’re never too old to have new dreams.”
Credit: Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer
