Student Spotlight: Tosha Donnals

Dual cancer diagnoses take life in a new direction

Tosha Donnals was inspired to become a nurse when her son was diagnosed with cancer. Then, she faced her own health crisis.

Tosha Donnals, DNP ’21, RN, says she was going through “the worst time” of her life when she decided to become a nurse.

A warrant officer in the Illinois Army National guard, Donnals had returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army when she learned that her then 4-year-old son had acute myeloid leukemia, a rare form of childhood cancer.

She moved her family to Memphis so that he could receive care at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. There, she became a full-fledged care partner: taking care of his central line, giving his medications, measuring urine and other duties.

“I was doing a lot of things that I never thought I would do,” Donnals says. “That’s when I started thinking about it. I thought, ‘maybe I could be a nurse.’”

Then, while getting her bachelor’s degree in nursing at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, Donnals learned she had breast cancer.

She was 38 and considered young for breast cancer. She immediately started treatment—chemotherapy, followed by radiation—only taking one semester off from school.

Donnals and her son are now healthy, but she says those experiences inform her care as a nurse.

“I want to treat everyone as an individual and a human,” she says. “I try not to talk ‘medical speak’ to them. I need to be empathetic and sympathetic, and I can be both of those, because we’ve been through pretty much everything.”

I was doing a lot of things that I never thought I would do,” Donnals says. “That’s when I started thinking about it. I thought, ‘maybe I could be a nurse.’

Four months after graduating from UIC’s Family Nurse Practitioner program, Donnals accepted her first job as a nurse practitioner with Decatur Memorial Hospital in Decatur, Illinois, part of a new program where she will be one of two NPs caring for stroke patients.

“I definitely feel my education I received at UIC has prepared me for this journey,” she says. “It is an extremely hard time for new graduates to find jobs. I feel my clinical experiences and the overall reputation of the UIC College of Nursing helped me to stand out in the sea of candidates.”

Donnals’ dedication to her community and personal drive has been an “inspiration” to her instructors and fellow students, says clinical assistant professor Karen Cotler, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, director of the UIC Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner program.

“Her deep commitment to caring for vulnerable and underserved communities and service permeates every aspect of her life,” Cotler says. “She represents and implements the very essence of the UIC College of Nursing mission.”

Tosha Donnals and her son Max, 16, whose cancer diagnosis at age 4 prompted her to become a nurse.