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By Darby Kendall

Teshia Wilburn distinctly remembers the first time she was called to a career in nursing. At just 8 years old, she felt compelled to help others following a medical emergency within her own family.  

Wilburn’s aunt was taken to the hospital for difficulty breathing, where she ended up getting quadruple bypass surgery. Afterward, Wilburn wondered how the medical system could have intervened earlier to answer her aunt’s previous calls for help.  

“She had seen her primary care provider numerous times, and all he said was, ‘Oh, you’re just having anxiety.’ Because she had gone so many years being misdiagnosed, it built up on itself,” Wilburn remembered. “It was within that very moment that I became so fascinated with the inner workings of the heart. My mom’s a nurse too, so she ended up flying out to New York to be at my aunt’s side. I just remember asking her when she got back, ‘Mom, what could we have done? What did she not know?’”  

Not only did the event spark Wilburn’s fascination with the heart, but it also ignited her devotion to educating underserved populations within medicine.  

“It made such a big impact on me because I almost lost my aunt over something that we could have potentially prevented, had she been taken a little bit more seriously and given the education that she needed to set herself up to thrive,” Wilburn said. “I feel like my purpose is working in cardiovascular medicine and really getting out there and talking to people. There’s so much power in networking and educating.”  

To follow that purpose, Wilburn looked to OHSU. She is now a second-year student pursuing her bachelor’s degree from the School of Nursing. As a lifelong Oregonian, Wilburn said she had her heart set on attending school here. The fact that she works as an intake coordinator for the hospital — soon to celebrate her eighth year in the position — only further motivated her when choosing a nursing program.  

“I believe in what OHSU is about, which is why I’m so happy to still be an employee,” Wilburn said. “OHSU does so well with wanting to collaborate and bring diversity in and make it patient centered. That’s the way that they teach in school; the curriculum is so patient focused. Those things really spoke to me, which is why I wanted to make sure I got my education at OHSU. I just felt like our core goals and values aligned.”  

“I am really looking forward to being that bright light and that positivity for my patients.”

Teshia Wilburn

Thanks to her experience as an intake coordinator, Wilburn is no stranger to discussing potentially uncomfortable subjects with patients. Her professional goal to educate others involves starting tough conversations around health, particularly in communities where such subjects are often seen as taboo.   

“In the African American community, we really like to hide or not talk about our diagnoses because we feel like it’s labeling, or we’ve done something wrong,” said Wilburn. “When actually, there’s so much power in talking about what you’re going through, because what you might know, someone else doesn’t. Having that vulnerability is so important, and that’s why I really want to get involved. I want to help, to say, ‘Hey, it’s okay; tell us what’s going on. How can I better help you to live a life?’”  

Wilburn’s passion in this area helped lead her to be named a 2024 Johnson & Johnson Our Race to Health Equity Diversity Nursing Scholar, a scholarship that bolsters a diverse health care professional pipeline by increasing BIPOC representation among nurses. Beyond the financial support she received, Wilburn said the scholarship was emotionally encouraging as well.  

“I was truly speechless, because it meant that somebody saw me and believed in what I want to do and the type of footprint I really want to leave in nursing. If that’s something that can be seen on a national level, it just gives me so much hope and so much aspiration — the possibilities of what I can do are endless.”  

When reflecting on what kind of footprint Wilburn will leave with her nursing, she hopes to be a reliable source for those she aids and an advocate for her patients. After witnessing what her aunt went through, she vowed to serve as a voice for those who may be afraid to verbalize their medical issues to doctors or surgeons.   

“Being a nurse, I’m the one that will spend the most time with the patient and be able to speak to their health care provider for them if they need it,” Wilburn explained. “I think with patients, it’s so important for them to feel like someone’s got their back. If they’re going into a situation where this is a new diagnosis for them and they’re not even telling their family about it, they need someone in their corner constantly to just be there and advocate for them.”  

Acknowledging that a career in medicine isn’t often the easiest path to take, Wilburn said for her, the rewards of nursing greatly outweigh any costs. She looks forward to entering the field after graduation and putting her practical skills to good use, a dream she’s maintained since childhood.  

“I am really looking forward to being that bright light and that positivity for my patients. I want to make sure that each patient I meet knows I’m here for them, I care about them, and that they’re a person and they have value to me,” Wilburn reflected. “That’s the joy that I get out of it.”  

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