Sharon Baker rested on a metal bench outside Sentara Norfolk General Hospital after her 12-hour nursing shift in the emergency department. Eyes wide-open — simultaneously alert and exhausted — she finally had a moment to relax in the early morning. 

Nearly one-third of registered nurses say they might leave their job in the next year. Not Baker. She worked too hard for this. Since childhood, nursing was her dream. 

Baker’s path was a long one. She grew up in Norfolk, the daughter of a Navy veteran and a mother who immigrated from the Philippines. She wasn’t a great student, and found a steady job after high school as a bartender in Ghent.