SONvitals

Op-Ed: Consequences of Student Loan Caps

From Dean Sarah Szanton's op-ed in The Hill, "The Ugly Truth About the Student Loan Caps in Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful’ Law":

“Nurses make up the largest segment of the healthcare workforce. Their education emphasizes prevention and whole-person care for people and communities. Nurses are central to the shift from reactive “sick care” to proactive prevention, so restricting their ability to enter the profession is not just shortsighted, it’s self-defeating.”

Congratulations to our DAISY Award Recipients!

The SON DAISY team is proud to recognize Sarah Brodine, MSN, RN, and Dian Grandison, CRNP, for their excellence in precepting, as well as Maria Lao, MSN, BSN, RN, PCCN, and Chelsea Wensdorfer, CRNP, for their excellence in clinical teaching.

The Birth of a Doula

In January 2025, student Shiauna Ledbetter joined the Birth Companions program, training as a doula to offer free services to people having babies in the greater Baltimore area. In the Afro, she describes her own baptism by fire—and the inspiration for her journey toward advancing care for Black women giving birth:

My grandmother is a midwife. I grew up watching her serve people with so much love and strength. So much passion. She’s not delivering babies anymore, but she’s still in it—helping rebuild a birth center in Asheville, North Carolina, doing birth-inspired art, always encouraging me. She’s mailed me books about midwifery, nudged me to think about the bigger picture. She’s always emphasized the importance of representation in this field, especially for Black women.