Nurses inspire nurses. For several UCF families, nurses have inspired not one, but two, future Knight nurses who will answer the call to care for their community and help address the nursing shortage.
“It’s a bit unusual,” says Kate Dorminy ’06BSN ’10MSN, undergraduate clinical education coordinator, about the four sets of siblings currently enrolled in the college’s upper-division bachelor’s degree program.
“We have had a set of twins before, but the current enrollment of siblings — either twins in the same cohort or siblings one year apart — is the most I’ve seen since joining the college,” says Dorminy.
For National Siblings Day on April 10, meet two of the pairs of siblings — who also are twins — and find out how nurses inspired all of them to pursue the profession.
Macie and Marah Hunt
Juniors, traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) in Orlando
Hometown: Fort Myers, Florida
Inspiration to pursue nursing:
Marah: Nursing was something I always knew I wanted to major in when going into college.
Growing up our parents used to tell my sister and I about the impact the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) nurses made on them and us during our time spent there after we were born. Since then, I knew I wanted to be able to do that for others. I like how nursing has opportunities for different specialties and there is always something to learn.
Macie: During high school, I was involved in early childhood education programs and worked in preschools. I absolutely love working with children, and decided to combine that with choosing a career that would allow me to help children in many different ways. In nursing, there are lots of different specialty options that involve working with newborns, children and their families.
Why UCF?
Marah: After touring UCF, I knew it was where I wanted to be.
Macie: I chose UCF because after my tour I loved the campus and the area around UCF, it also is not too far from home for us so we really liked that we could visit home often.
Career plans after graduation:
Marah: I hope to return to my hometown after graduating and work in the NICU or pediatrics, and eventually get my nurse practitioners degree.
Macie: After graduation I think so far, we both plan to return back home to work there. I would like to get a job in either pediatric nursing or something in mother/baby.
Best part of having a sibling in the program:
Macie: I think it’s been really fun having my sister here with me and going through the nursing program with her.
Brianna and Brittney Perry
Juniors, traditional BSN in Orlando
Hometown: Wellington, Florida
Inspiration to pursue nursing:
Brianna: When I was applying for colleges in 2019, I knew that I wanted to major in a mental health-related field that also specialized in taking care of people. Mental health is something that is very important to me, especially due to my struggle with depression that I experienced when I was younger. I didn’t exactly know how to best achieve my goals, so I consulted with my mom since she is also a nurse. She provided me with so much knowledge about the many fields of nursing, more specifically the area of psychiatric mental health nursing.
After doing a lot of my own research, I ultimately decided that I would major in nursing to achieve my long-term career goals.
Brittney: Honestly, when I was really young, I always told my mom I would never be a nurse because her job sounded so hard. Although this was back when I was way too young to know what real careers were and I thought I was going to be famous when I grew up! In elementary school, I started to develop acne before the rest of my peers, and I got extremely self-conscious about it. I started going to the dermatologist when my acne got severe, and my mom told me that the person I would see at my appointments was a nurse practitioner. I didn’t believe her at first because I thought that the only way to become a dermatologist was to go to medical school.
My whole life I have been very interested in different aspects of the medical field, especially genetic disorders. As I juggled with different options, such as being a physician’s assistant, I eventually decided that nursing was the best fit for me as I researched different aspects of the medical field and realized the endless number of things you could do with a nursing degree.
Ever since then, restoring people’s confidence by becoming a dermatology nurse practitioner has been my motivation to pursue nursing.
Why UCF?
Brianna: I wished to join UCF in particular for their nursing program. Although UCF’s nursing program is extremely competitive, it is considered to be one of the best nursing programs in Florida. I wanted to be able to gain the highest quality nursing education that I could, so I decided on UCF in order to do so.
Brittney: I decided on UCF because it was closer to home than other schools that I was interested in, and I really fell in love with the atmosphere on campus after doing the campus tour. I also just feel so welcome at UCF and the surrounding area because of the widespread diversity and inclusivity of Orlando. I also knew how rigorous and well-regarded UCF’s nursing program was, so that majorly influenced my decision.
Career plans after graduation:
Brianna: My career goals after I graduate include attending graduate school at UCF to obtain my Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP). I am hoping to specialize in psychiatric mental health nursing once I obtain my DNP.
Brittney: After we graduate, both Brianna and I have jobs secured as RNs at the Orlando VA in Lake Nona thanks to the VA-STEP internship and HPSP scholarship that we’re starting this May. I’m so excited and grateful that we were accepted for this opportunity, and I can’t wait to start my career at the VA.
As my overall nursing career goal, before I get my doctorate degree at least, I have always been interested in critical care and knew that I eventually want to work on a CVICU (cardiovascular intensive care unit) floor before I even got accepted into the UCF nursing program. The heart just fascinates me, and I absolutely loved my pediatric clinical observation day on Arnold Palmer’s CVICU floor.
As I work through my internship, I want to develop the nursing skills needed to work in the ICU after I graduate with my BSN before
