“I didn’t want to be a nurse”

Kristen Gallagher didn’t wants to become a nurse.

She joined the Army Reserve in 1985 for two reasons: to get some of her student loans paid back from her first degree, and to learn to fly.

Gallagher discovered she was half an inch too short to become a pilot. The military told her that instead of going to flight school, they would send her to medical school to become a doctor.

“I said no, I’m an accountant,” she says. “I don’t like blood and guts.”

The military then said they would send her to forensic school.

“I said no. Dead blood and guts are no better.”

Then there was a third option: nursing school.

“I said, ‘Thank you anyway, see you later.’ They told me it doesn’t work that way. I told them, ‘As God is my witness, any day I will fail nursing school just so you realize I don’t want to be a nurse’.”

The Army sent her to nursing school anyway, and Gallagher graduated at the top of her class. She says she got her first job out of nursing school because of job security, and now decades later she can’t imagine having any other career.

“I still don’t really like blood, guts or bedpans, but I can’t imagine doing anything else,” she says. “I have worked in difficult circumstances: hospice, emergency room and critical care. What I found appealing about nursing is that you can help people in a chaotic situation. I can answer their questions and give them resources so they don’t feel alone. I like being able to make people feel better in this way.”

Dedicated to caring for veterans

Gallagher is enrolled in the University of Colorado College of Nursing’s Master’s in Veterans and Military Health Care (VMHC) program.

She discovered that caring for veterans came naturally. Some of Gallagher’s family members are veterans and the camaraderie among veterans appealed to her. She wanted to enroll in the program because it is the only one of its kind in the country and knew a program like this was needed.

“It wasn’t until I started the VMHC program that I realized how different health care in a military environment is compared to a civilian environment,” she says. “So many non-military physicians have no idea of ​​the unique challenges or unique things that veterans face. I felt like healthcare professionals in the VA needed more opportunities for education, especially when they are just starting out.”

“Our professors in the program are so well prepared for the classes,” she adds. “They’ve lived a military and veteran life, and they’re not going to teach you things they don’t know about.”

“It wasn’t until I started the VMHC program that I realized how different healthcare is in a military environment compared to a civilian environment.” – Kristen Gallagher

Gallagher’s first nursing job was working as an LPN at a VA hospital in Delaware. Her career took her to several jobs outside the VA, but she knew she always wanted to return. In 2013, she returned to the VA, this time working in North Carolina, and has been there ever since.

Part of Gallagher’s work at the VA is studying psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). She says the condition is common among veterans because post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a contributing factor to the attacks.

“I’ve worked in trauma critical care and am a veteran myself, but I didn’t know anything about these types of attacks,” she says. “I thought, ‘Okay, how can I use what I learned in my classes to move forward with what I’m doing now?’”

Gallagher hopes her work will be used nationally to help nurses receive training in the care that is so crucial to veterans.

“As my retirement date approaches, I can look back and say, ‘I made a difference for this veteran and this veteran. Something I did made the VA better for many veterans. One way to put it is: that’s what I want to do when I grow up.”