Honey Holifield, RN

By Honey Holified, RN
Fertility Specialists of Houston

Let me start by being completely honest with you.  When I decided to go to nursing school, it was really because I could always find a job.  I was not one of those people who went into it wanting to help people.  Sad but true.  Growing up, there was never enough money in the household.  My parents had their own business, and work for them was sporadic.  I decided when I was very young that I did not want to live my life worried about money all of the time.  I wanted a steady income.  I have always been interested in medicine.  I first wanted to be a doctor, but I am not very good at chemistry.  Then I wanted to be a teacher.  While I was taking classes for an education degree, someone told me that they thought I would make a good nurse.  The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. 

After graduating from nursing school, I went to work in a pediatric emergency room.  “Treat them and street them,” as the saying goes.  If I had any sort of impact on a patient, I never knew about it.  My second job was as a nursing supervisor for a primary care clinic.  I was not truly involved in patient care, it was mostly administrative duties. 

I was then approached about an opening for an IVF coordinator at an infertility clinic.  I told them that I knew nothing about infertility.  In school, we only learned about how to get pregnant, not what to do if you can’t.  They said they would teach me everything I needed to know.  I went and observed for one day and fell in love with the field of reproductive endocrinology and infertility.  I was seeing these women come in wanting a baby more than anything else in the world -- what they have been wanting since they were little girls -- and not being able to conceive.  I then realized the true reward of nursing. 

After becoming an IVF coordinator and eventually an egg donor coordinator, I enjoy the privilege of helping some couples realize their dream of becoming parents.  It is such a beautiful thing to see.  I wish that I could describe the feeling I get when I see their dream become a reality.  The smile on their faces is priceless.  Their faces probably hurt at night from smiling so much! 

Unfortunately, I am also there during the bad times.  Some patients come to us with the expectation that because they see an REI they will walk out with a baby.  I wish the pregnancy rates were 100%.   I have to console people who have been trying for so long and finally get that positive pregnancy test and then miscarry or who spend $30,000 on a donor egg cycle and have a negative pregnancy test.  My heart aches for those couples.  I just wish I had a pill or a magic wand and could make all of my patients pregnant.

I take this job home with me every day.  I am not one who can leave it at the office.  This job has its good days and its bad days.  I get to celebrate with people when it works and console people when it does not.  Whatever the situation, I hope that I have affected patient’s lives in a positive way, by being patient, kind and understanding, because they surely have affected mine!