Answering Her Calling

Margaret Giblin

BY JILLIAN PAHEL

Some say nursing is a calling. Margaret Giblin, BSN ’22, says she has received several signs along her journey that have confirmed this.

Born and raised in the Baltimore area, Giblin attended the Friends School of Baltimore, where her education was grounded in social justice and equity. In her senior year, she participated in a seminar led by Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins-affiliated nonprofit focused on global birthing outcomes, and she learned about maternal mortality rates and racial disparities in health outcomes, both in the United States and worldwide. She also learned about the frequent complications that can lead to devastating consequences, and she became interested in midwifery and women’s health.

Giblin started in a pre-med track at Washington College on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, balancing her studies with acting in several theater productions. She quickly realized she was more interested in bedside and patient-centered care, she said. After speaking with her aunt, a nurse, she decided to pivot to pre-nursing. She chose to be closer to home and attended Towson University to complete the necessary prerequisites. Giblin still loves theater and says it has helped her with the communication and interpersonal skills that are critical for work in health care.

When Giblin first applied to UMSON, she was not accepted. She persevered and applied again, not only being admitted but securing a Conway Scholarship, which covered her tuition, books, and fees. Giblin said she was ecstatic when she learned she had received the scholarship and knew it was a sign that she was meant to be at UMSON.

The Conway Scholarship motivated Giblin to succeed academically and enabled her to move within walking distance of campus. “The scholarship was such a blessing,” she says. “I was able to focus 100% on school.”

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Giblin administered vaccines at the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s on-campus vaccination clinic. While participating in clinical rotations at the University of Maryland Medical Center, she found that patients were alone for long periods of time without family being able to visit. Giblin says she enjoyed being an empathetic connection and support system to help patients through a trying time. This sense of fulfillment is another sign she is on the right path in achieving her calling, she says.

On the first day of her Maternity, Newborn and Women’s Health Nursing class, she witnessed an unmedicated birth. “It was the most beautiful thing,” she says, adding that she “learned so much in the rotation about fetal monitoring and high-risk pregnancies.” Her academic and clinical experiences at UMSON strengthened her passion for nursing, says Giblin, who has remained in Baltimore, working as a graduate nurse on the Comprehensive Transplant Unit at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She eventually wants to become a Certified Nurse Midwife and work to advocate for birth workers of color within the profession. She says, “A city is only as strong as its most vulnerable populations.”