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She's Got This

Nursing

Portland Magazine

February 19, 2019

Tatjana Jerkovic

Tatjana Jerkovic-Walls ’19 has met a lot of UP nurses in the past 15 years working as an ER technician at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. These nurses— the way they treated patients and colleagues—were the best advertisement UP’s nursing program could have asked for (along with UP’s astronomical pass rates on the national exams). With the financial aid of the Ralph and Sandra Richardson Miller Endowed Scholarship and the Providence Scholarship, Tatjana was able to take the plunge and enroll in UP’s nursing program last January. “As a nurse I can do more; I can be more involved in all aspects of care,” she says.

Becoming a nurse has been a lifelong goal for Tatjana, but until now other concerns had to take priority. She first came to the US as a refugee, after her family arranged for her to leave war-torn Croatia in the early 1990s. (Her family home was destroyed. Her father, who was injured by a grenade, remained and is rebuilding.) When she arrived in the US, she became a medical assistant since it was the quickest way to find work and get medical insurance.

Juggling work, family, and volunteering at her son’s school has been a lot to track, but her family is supportive of her latest career move. Her youngest son, who is 11, might just be the sweetest cheerleader going. He leaves her notes on her desk, “You can do it, Mom. You’ve got this.” Keep up the encouragement, kiddo. We couldn’t agree more.