Nursing Profiles

Shawna M.

Toledo, OH
NICU

I always knew I wanted to work in the healthcare industry, but it wasn’t until my senior year in college that I discovered nursing was my true calling. And little did I know, my career would begin where I got my start at life. After working as a hospital volunteer and completing my bachelor’s degree in biology, I jumped “feet first” into nursing school. I also accepted a job, using my skills in biology, as a research assistant at an area teaching hospital. The focus of the research was on premature infants. I immediately felt at ease working with the tiniest of babies. I was a preemie myself, and I remember my mother telling me stories of worrisome days and sleepless nights spent at Toledo Children’s Hospital after my birth. I was born three months prematurely at just 3 pounds, 2 ounces. The combination of nursing classes, research, and my mother’s stories led me to do extra studies and a clinical rotation in Toledo Children’s Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, the same unit where I was a patient 28 years ago. I quickly learned that neonatal nurses do far more than change diapers and feed babies. I knew this is what I was destined to do. At the end of my rotation, I gratefully accepted a nursing position at Toledo Children’s Hospital’s NICU. I was and still am ecstatic to be working in the same unit that helped me. I love the field of nursing because it offers so much. For me, it offers job satisfaction, stability and diversity. I am truly happy in what I do. I know I can go anywhere in the nation and be able to find a job in this career. But above all, it is a true honor to help tiny infants and their families get through a difficult time.