Pleasantview Home in Kalona hired Holly Lear as its new director of nursing last month.

Lear holds a doctorate in nursing alongside a master’s in public health among her extensive qualifications.

Lear said her career path in nursing has been gratifying.

“I always knew I wanted to help people, and there’s a lot of careers that can do that, but nursing is one that takes a great deal of care and compassion,” she said in a phone interview. “That has always been my favorite aspect of nursing.”

Responsibilities of her new position include substantial roles in hiring and training staff, state survey compliance, regular administrative meetings, and frequent policy updates to handle the rapidly developing COVID-19 situation.

When Lear graduated with a nursing degree in 2010, the recession was holding back hospitals from hiring new nursing staff. She found herself instead working at a nursing home and loved it so much she forged the rest of her career in long-term care.

Lear went on to become a nursing supervisor in a Connecticut nursing home for three years while working toward her master’s degree before moving to Scotland where she managed a home healthcare company for a year. She got married, had children and went back to school while abroad, receiving her doctorate last year before returning to the United States where she joined a University of Iowa COVID-19 emergency response team to slow the spread of the pandemic.

Lear was born in Missouri and said she was thrilled to return to the heartland. “Oh, the Midwest is the Mid-best,” she said. “I had my adventure, I had my fun, and I was very happy to end up back in the Midwest.”

Lear is excited about the opportunity to work at the Kalona nursing home.

“The policies here at Pleasantview are excellent, again, they’re a five-star facility,” she said. “I’m walking into kind of the best-case scenario, and I intend to keep it that way under my leadership.”

Staying on top of things under the pandemic’s conditions presents a unique challenge, with regulations and recommendations changing sometimes multiple times per day.

The director of nursing is pregnant, which carries its own litany of concerns.

“It’s a big deal to take a director of nursing job pregnant in the middle of a global pandemic,” Lear said. “Pregnant women are particularly immunosuppressed, immunocompromised, I feel confident that our infection control procedures are the best they can be, and I feel safe working here, and I’m happy to be on the front lines with my nursing staff.”

Nevertheless, she is excited to apply her higher education to her work and to develop both her academic and practical talents going forward. It is uncommon for a nursing director to hold a doctorate, and Lear said she looks forward to taking advantage of her higher education background to publish in academic journals where she says voices with hands-on experience are often absent.

Looking forward to a bright career with Pleasantview Home, Lear said she was already feeling very loved, very welcomed and very confident.