As a military spouse, it’s easy to feel alone. Every two to three years, a new assignment arrives and off you go, leaving family and friends for a new port of call.
Nakeesha Donovan knows the drill all too well.
“We’ve lived all over the world—Okinawa, Japan … Jacksonville NC,” she reports. “Building a sense of community is difficult. Our last duty station, we didn’t have much of a community at all. I was very lost.”
And so when Donovan began searching for a nursing school, she was looking for more than a path to a master’s degree. “I remember looking into other programs and, obviously, Johns Hopkins has such a wonderful reputation, but the little slogan thing, ‘You belong here.’ It was so comforting, and the courses sounded great.
“I was really excited to apply to this school and was really, really happy to get in. I cried.”
For Donovan, a trained EMT and the mother of a young son, the biggest surprise upon arrival at JHSON and its Outside Track program was the lack of surprises. It’s as advertised, she says.
“Honestly, just how tightknit it is, which is such a wonderful thing. And how diverse the student population is—just their backgrounds and where they came from. I love that Hopkins values that, because we can all appreciate different perspectives and then apply it to nursing and make it more holistic and not a one-minded view.”
I wanted my own identity. Johns Hopkins has given me the opportunity to find it.
And the Outside Track, which puts students into various outpatient communities for the clinical portion of their studies, allows Donovan’s flexibility and people focus to stand out. “I knew I wanted to do patient care because of my experience as an EMT. I loved, loved my patients and that one-on-one time with them, that they were my No. 1 focus and I could really listen to them and hear them.”
It’s why she chose nursing over, say, dentistry: “I really love to talk to my patients and that’s very hard to do when obviously you’re in their teeth.”
Also, Donovan’s mom is a retired outpatient psych nurse, which was a large influence on her upbringing. She saw how impactful nurses are in the lives of others, and how there are other opportunities outside of the hospital and in the community. “But I wanted my own identity. Johns Hopkins has given me the opportunity to find it” in Baltimore, where she and her husband—on his final tour with the military—have decided to put down roots.
“[The Master’s Entry program] has been challenging, but it’s made me grow in all the best ways. It’s a good challenge,” Donovan says. “I’m excited to graduate. Don’t get me wrong … just to not have the coursework. But I will 100 percent look back on this time very fondly.”