Olivia Reynolds has two diplomas side by side: her LPN from 2014, and her RN from 2024.

A lot happened in that decade for this third-generation nurse. A flood that permanently damaged her hometown hospital. A personal hearing loss diagnosis. The devastation, death, and burnout that came with COVID.

But through it all, Olivia stuck with nursing. In fact, with an ideal blend of compassionate heart and thick skin, we’d say she’s a natural.

You started out thinking you might become a teacher. Why didn’t that work out?

When I graduated high school in 2009, I went to Winthrop University with all intentions of becoming a teacher. As part of my Intro to Teaching class, I went and shadowed a second-grade class in Rock Hill, and I left thinking, Uh-uh! Nope. No way. This is not for me.

About the same time, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, and we cared for her at home. I guess that’s when I first seriously considered nursing. But I told my parents that before I wasted any more money on an education that I might or might not use, I’d get my CNA and start working. I tried it and enjoyed it and decided to take the TEAS test to get into an RN program somewhere. But I was still young and didn’t study like I should have, and I missed it by, like, two points.

A couple months later, I saw where Williamsburg Tech had their LPN program, so I enrolled and eventually graduated with my LPN in 2014. I’ve since worked in lots of different healthcare settings.

Yes. You’ve worked in nursing homes, middle schools, medical-surgical units, ERs – even a modular hospital. Tell us about that.

Hurricane Joaquin swept through Kingstree in October of 2015, and the flooding ruined Williamsburg Regional Hospital, which was the only hospital in the whole county. The state closed that brick-and-mortar building in February of 2016, but they still had to take care of people, so they put up a freestanding, modular hospital and ER. I resigned from my position at a nursing facility in Georgetown to go back home and work in med-surg there.

The building that was Williamsburg Regional had to be gutted and was no longer usable as a hospital, so MUSC came in a built a new hospital – MUSC Health Black River – which is where I work now. But the old hospital building is still an important place to the people of Kingstree, including my family. Both my grandmother and my mother worked there. So I’m glad that they’re going to honor its legacy by showcasing its history and pictures along an Honor Wall in the new hospital.

Of the various settings you’ve worked in, the ER is your favorite. Why is that?

I don’t want to say it’s the adrenaline, but I like that we have to use a fast-paced motion to keep things moving smoothly. Plus, there’s always something new in the ER. I’m never at risk of losing my skills because every person who comes through the door is facing a different challenge. One person may come in because they don’t feel good, but the next person may have been in a wreck or – gosh forbid! – might have a gunshot wound. For these people, it’s the worst day of their life, and to see a familiar face – which is what it’s like in a town as small as ours – automatically gives them a moment of calm.

Working in the ER means trauma. Surprises. Scary stuff. How do you handle all of that emotionally?

The very nature of nursing school – going from class to class, multitasking, prioritizing and pushing through – helps you learn how to compartmentalize those things that may overwhelm you. You don’t necessarily deal with your feelings in the moment. You do that in your own time off the clock because you have to be mindful of your patients. If you have a look of worry on your face because you’ve just come from a patient in critical condition, and you’re going into the room of a patient who’s waiting on some test results, that makes them nervous – maybe unnecessarily so. Your patients need you to be a calming presence, so you learn how to be that for them.

Does that ever jeopardize your own mental health well-being?

I’ll tell anybody that you have to have thick skin to be a nurse because it’s hard! Like so many others, the burnout with COVID was rough – working the front lines, the emotional and physical toll, the 12 hours of sleep and then turning around and doing it all over again. There was so much devastation and death and sickness. Nothing I’ve seen or done since compares to it. But when you help somebody when they’re in need – especially desperate need like that – it makes everything worth it. In a way, helping others is how I take care of myself too.

You’ve also been fortunate to have a strong support system, especially when you were going through nursing school. Tell us about some of those influences.

My mother is one. She always taught me not to be dependent on anyone else, and that drove me to do for myself, to stand on my own, to be capable. I wanted the freedom to choose whatever I wanted to do. That’s been a blessing, but it’s also meant that I’ve had to pay bills, pay for nursing school, juggle clinicals and classes and a full-time nights-and-weekends job. My family was like, “Yeah, she’s alive. She calls us, but we only see her randomly.”

My sister was also very helpful during all of this. She works at Williamsburg Tech. Hearing her talk about her work or seeing her with her college badge is what gave me that little push to go back to school. Then once I was there, sometimes I’d need a break, and I’d go to her office and just sit. She’d say, “Do you wanna talk?” And I’d be like, “No, I don’t need to talk. I just need to sit.” Family is your safe place, you know, and having her there when I was overwhelmed was comforting.

Dean Anderson was also a godsend. I’d had her as an instructor back when I was getting my LPN, so I knew exactly who to reach out to when I wanted to go back to get my RN. And the smaller class sizes at Williamsburg Tech didn’t just mean that they knew my name. They also knew my story.

I was diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss five years ago, and I didn’t know how that might affect my nursing or my return to school. But Dean Anderson sent voiceovers after classes so that I could re-listen to lectures and make sure I didn’t miss anything when I made my notes. She empathized with the fact that I was going to school and working full-time. And she was someone I could go to to vent, to confide in, to talk to about things not related to nursing. And there was never any judgment. I can never thank her enough for what she’s done for me.

After such an intense year, Olivia looks forward to taking a break. But once she recharges, she’s going back to school to get her BSN, and we wish her the best in that endeavor!