New grad nurse brings resilience, life experience to her dream job

While most people her age would be mulling retirement, Deborah Stephenson, 64, of Smithfield is revving up a new career as a nurse.

In May, she graduated with highest honors from the University of Mount Olive. And she’s now working on the progressive care unit at UNC Health Johnston as a nurse—a step up from her former duties as the unit’s certified nursing assistant, monitor tech and secretary.

Stephenson says age doesn’t define her, and she has no plans to retire. Instead, she’s plotting her next career move, to enroll in a master’s program in nursing education. Ultimately, she wants to teach aging adults how to live more healthful lives.

Stephenson was an accountant for 30 years before joining UNC Health Johnston in 2006. She started out doing accounting work at Home Health & Hospice before transitioning to the progressive care unit in 2015.

Stephenson says she felt led to seek a nursing degree after a mission trip to New York City. At the time, she was part of a team serving children rescued from human trafficking. While she was adept at logistics and planning, she didn’t know how to help the children heal from the pain they were feeling, she says.

“Over the next few months, I struggled for an answer,” Stephenson says.  That led her to the admissions office at Johnston Community College, where she told a counselor her story. “Without a transcript, but with plenty of faith, I enrolled and began classes the next day for the prerequisites I would need for the nursing program,” she says.

But her journey was bumpy. Her first attempt at nursing school was interrupted by her husband’s critical need for a liver transplant. He was so sick that she set aside her studies to take care of him. Nine days after withdrawing from school, they got the call that a matching donor had been found.

Her husband recovered, and Stephenson returned to her studies. But then her health began to fail. Eventually, she was diagnosed with uterine serous carcinoma, a rare but aggressive subtype of endometrial cancer that starts in the lining of the uterus. “I needed immediate surgery and treatment,” she says. “Feeling overwhelmed, I withdrew from nursing school again.”

Following surgery, Stephenson needed chemotherapy and radiation. The good news: her cancer was found early,  at stage 1. And despite complications with her chemo, she remained in school, doing classes online to finish a double major in gerontology at Barton College in 2020. “I was so sick, but I kept going,” she says. “I’m not a quitter.”

In 2022, after years of remission, Stephenson’s doctor encouraged her to pursue her dreams. So she applied to the University of Mount Olive  and was accepted to the fall 2023 nursing program.

“Even after facing obstacles in getting my degree, I would still encourage others to further their education,” she says. “Nothing is impossible when you put your faith in God. I have faced unfortunate and unplanned situations. But I keep moving forward.”