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Nursing Narratives is a new regular feature for UVA nursing students that provides them with space to express their thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Virginia Nursing Legacy (VNL) thanks the Jefferson Trust, which has funded this enterprise in both the VNL's print and digital editions through May 2025.

This edition of Narratives focuses on the intersection of nursing and parenthood, and all the many ways that nurses are in our lives from the very beginning and mark us in unique and profound ways. We also offer this edition's theme as a nod to National Parents' Day, celebrated at the end of each July.

Narratives is edited by DNP student and Jefferson Trust Grant recipient Sherrie Page Guyer, MSN, RN, editor. Faculty members who would like to coordinate student assignments and students with article ideas that should be considered for this space may email Sherrie.

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If I were born again, I would want to be born as you.

My mom has always said this to me, and it hurts as much as it reminds me of how proud she is of me. It’s hard to reconcile the feeling. How can it be possible for one sentence to cleave my heart in two and simultaneously fill me with the sunshine-warm pride that only a mom can instill?

My mom, a second-generation Latin American, has always given me what she could not have. Becoming a mother as a teenager, she didn’t get to go to college to fulfill her dream of becoming a postpartum nurse, but instead poured herself into being the best mother her children could ask for, positioning us to reach for our dreams. I reap the benefits of her sacrifices every day, as a person privileged enough to be attaining an advanced nursing degree.

I see my mom in the women I care for in clinics and hospitals: in the gentle mom stroking her newborn’s head; in the tired mom giving the best parts of her meal tray to her toddler; and in the worried mom asking questions about a sick child in Spanish. I see her in the women who nod politely as medical decisions are made for them in a language and culture they do not understand. I can’t help but feel grateful my mom grew up bilingual.

As a nursing student, I try to replicate the selflessness and boundless compassion my mom exemplifies in my patient care. My goal after I graduate is to work in a neonatal ICU, caring for newborns and helping parents participate in their babies’ care so that they are with their children every step of the way. I owe it to my mom to take the gifts she gave me and pay them forward to the families I hope to serve one day.

Sabrina is a second-year Clinical Nurse Leader master’s student who earned a degree in biology from the University of Richmond. Currently a communications strategist for the Virginia Neonatal Perinatal Collaborative, she lives in Richmond with her fiancé and their dog, Suki.