A Married Couple Pursues Their Nursing Degrees Together at UF Online

Their paths to nursing

Erin first embarked on her nursing journey after she had children and decided to use her own personal experiences to help others. “[My nursing journey] began after I had three kids,” she explained. “After the first two, I didn’t have great experiences and so then I decided I wanted to do labor and delivery to become a midwife. I had midwives deliver all three of my kids and so that’s kind of what got me started. I didn’t graduate from nursing school until 2014.”

After witnessing his wife’s nursing journey, David decided to pursue a similar career that brought him joy and excitement. “[Erin] actually inspired me to go to nursing school,” he said. “I always enjoyed hearing stories when she was coming home from work and telling me all the different stuff she was getting to do. It seemed like it was interesting every time she went to work, so that’s kind of why I went into it. I graduated in 2019.” After graduating separately from their RN programs, they wanted to earn their BSN degrees together while balancing parenthood.

Becoming Gator Nurses together

David and Erin were able to balance their busy family life and nursing studies with the convenient structure UF Online offers. “[UF Online] is very flexible,” David said. “That’s the main reason that we chose to do online is because we need the flexibility to be able to study whenever we have off and our kids are always doing things so we have to be able to have a very flexible schedule.” Erin also accredits UF Online’s faculty and staff for enhancing their academic journey. “I think the staff has been great,” she said. “Any questions we have, they’re very flexible with helping, exams, and windows of time where you can take an exam instead of one set day and one set time.”

During the course of their studies, David and Erin had the rare and unique opportunity to go through the nursing program together as husband and wife. “I think that it was beneficial because we could kind of study and bounce things off of each other,” Erin said. “It was a little difficult because with the kids we try to make our schedules opposite of each other so it benefits and is kind of a little more difficult at the same time because we would be off on opposite days.”

David and Erin also wanted to set an example for their children and show them that hard work and dedication pay off. “I think it’s good for the kids to see,” Erin said. “We’re showing our kids that we did things a little later and we keep saying we always do things backward. We got married, then had kids, then went back to school and I think it’s good for them to see that we’re struggling a little bit with managing everything because it kind of pushes them, hopefully, to do things in the order that might be easier.”

The joy of healing

While going through the nursing program together, David and Erin found their own personal motivations for working in the nursing field. For Erin, making a difference in the lives of women and their families during labor and delivery means a lot to her. “I’m happy to be there for whatever the parents or family are going through. Being that advocate is good for my soul. I actually love going to work every day,” Erin said.

While their chapter at UF Online is coming to a close, David and Erin are looking eagerly toward the future. “I’m sure we’ll have some kind of celebration,” Erin said. “I know our families are very excited, both of us are the first to graduate college. I also plan on continuing. I’m hoping to start midwifery school next year, so I’ll be going on for my master’s degree at least. That’s my goal.” Meanwhile, David plans on taking a different route within nursing. “I’ll start looking into going to school for nurse practitioner,” he said. “I currently work in an ICU, so I might want to be a critical care nurse practitioner.”

The University of Florida congratulates David and Erin Franklin on their upcoming graduation from UF Online’s RN to BSN program this summer. The entire Gator Nation wishes their family happiness and success as they advance in their nursing careers. This National Nurses Week, UF Online would like to celebrate and thank all nurses who work incredibly hard to take care of others.