[1] Holden was also a prolific writer and wrote books, poems, and contributed to journal and newspaper articles with her publications focusing on topics such as nursing practices, physiology, and women's rights.

Her father worked as a police magistrate at Brisbane Water and her mother was the daughter of Dr Alick Osborne.

[3] Holden, along with her eleven siblings, were avid readers and were known as "the little bookworms" by other families in their neighborhood; she herself took her reading tastes from her father, enjoying books on English literature, poems, history, and Shakespeare.

[1] During her time at the hospital, Holden was involved in conflict with medical staff who were allegedly undermining the authority of the Lady Superintendent [Abbott] as well the female nurses helping her.

[2] During her time working there, Holden's health began to break down due to stress and within a year, she contracted typhoid and was invalided to Melbourne on a full salary in 1877.

For these good results, the main credit has been admittedly due to Miss Holden, who has had charge of the hospital since its foundation.

[3] Her most serious allegation was made against the influential Dr Anderson Stuart, the Professor of Anatomy at the University of Sydney, when she argued that a young girl might have lived if he had promptly responded to her call.

She warned the Board:I have only to take a sheet of foolscap and pen and state the truth to show not Sydney only but all Australia that the management of this institution has been a mixture of burlesque and tragedy.

[7] The issue was considered "an absorbing topic of public discussion in the metropolis for weeks" where it "spread widely throughout the country.

[3]) Holden prepared her case;[2] however even with the affirmative testimonials provided by her colleagues, ex-patients, and friends, including Dr Andrew Ross, she failed to prove her charges and was formally dismissed in October 1887.

[9] Whilst working at Hobart General Hospital, Holden utilized the following nursing practices to maintain the health and safety of patients diagnosed with typhoid:[11][12] Holden's nursing practices developed during her time at the Hobart General Hospital were crucial in the six months from January to June 1887 when there was an influx of typhoid patients admitted to the institution.

[11] Holden was a prominent writer with several of her books having a wide circulation,[13] with some of her most popular publications were written during the time she worked as Lady Superintendent.

[1] From the early 1870s, Holden began contributing articles to journals and newspapers, usually under pseudonyms such as "Australienne" and "Lyra Australia".

In essays such as "Woman's Work", she argues that the domesticity of women is not to be shamed or trivialized, rather it should be celebrated as a source of social progress.

She has been noted to have contributed to the growth of women's sphere of influence by challenging male medical professional power.