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When Valerie Hankerson started her nursing career, she did so in a hands-on sort of way: She started out as a secretary but decided to become a nurse after watching them in action. As her career evolved, however, so did the skills she needed. This is how Hankerson came to see her decades of experience needed something more, and procuring it has helped her grow in every category: as a nurse, as a mother, as a grandmother and even as a neighbor.

Hankerson discovered nursing as a career when her grandfather became sick. She found herself providing care for him — and realizing that she could bring that same care to others as a nurse. “Even without my education, I wanted to be hands-on. I wanted to fix it,” she says.

After earning her associate degree, Hankerson entered the workforce, where her career was profoundly shaped by the AIDS epidemic. It was, says Hankerson, “eye-opening.” She began working in a facility dedicated to patients with HIV.

“I was able to see and work with this population that was very vulnerable and misunderstood,” she says, “as well as see the medicine get better, to go from an instant death diagnosis to living with this disease, getting better, going back into society.”

This experience helped Hankerson understand just how much nursing is “shaped by the cutting edge”: “We’re the ones who are at the forefront of developing the techniques and routines that they teach in school,” she says.

Hankerson decided she should stay on that cutting edge, and in fact be the one to start honing it. As she gathered leadership duties and responsibilities, she became a nurse manager, a new role that opened her up to what makes nursing happen behind the scenes. “I needed to know more than just the hands-on nursing,” she says. “I needed to know about budgets, schedules, accreditations, joint commissions.”

In 2012, she went back to school to earn her bachelor’s degree. It wouldn’t be an easy transition. Hankerson was understandably anxious returning to school decades after she earned her high school diploma and associate degree. “Back when I went to nursing school, you learned it and you did it.” But now, as she focused on the rationale behind those actions, she would need to learn a new way to put her knowledge to work — and do it while working full time and raising kids as a single mom.

Hankerson knew when she went back to school she wouldn’t be able to cut corners. “I’m a leader and I’m a mom,” she says, “so I have to be an example. If I want my kids and grandkids to follow me in my journey, I can’t let them tell me they can’t do it. I need to do it and prove they can.”

Hankerson started researching schools and discovered her employer provided tuition assistance with ������ý. Moreover, ������ý’s flexible scheduling fit Hankerson’s life, which involved working 12-hour night shifts and caring for her children. “It took a village,” she says, citing family members who helped care for her kids or colleagues who helped accommodate her schedule. Eventually, she found a routine that worked.

Meanwhile, she immersed herself in the challenge of learning. She wanted to be challenged in a structured and rigorous environment without the chaos or unpredictability of a hospital.

Hankerson’s eagerness to take on extra challenges and go the extra mile come as no surprise to her colleagues, including fellow nurse manager Mitsuko Joly, who sees Hankerson’s drive every day: 

By pushing herself, Hankerson grew to understand not just what nurses do but also why they do it. “The emphasis on critical thinking helped me hone the skills I learned from experience,” she says, “plus how to put it on paper.”

That part turned out to be extremely important to Hankerson who, up to that point, hadn’t really considered the value of being able to communicate clearly in writing. Suddenly, something that felt like a formality — correctly formatting documents — held more meaning for Hankerson. She recalls an instructor at ������ý who “could look at a paper and know if a dot was not right, a comma was in the wrong spot, if a semicolon was supposed to be there.” The attention to detail stuck with Hankerson, who, years later, ran into that faculty member working in a clinic, and exclaimed, “You taught me APA!” (APA Style is a writing and formatting guide commonly used in science and education.)

Hankerson was able to put what she learned at ������ý to work right away, especially, she says, in her work with managing others: “I learned to set expectations and provide structure. I was very detailed, and I told them, ‘I am here when you need me, I am a resource for you.’”

It’s an ethos that continues to serve Hankerson in her role of nursing quality professional practice program manager at Cleveland Clinic. In fact, Hankerson finds herself turning to ������ý resources like the library for research. “Citations, references,” she says, “I still use it to this day.”

Joly recalls her own firsthand experience with “Valerie’s unwavering commitment to nursing excellence,” when Hankerson provided guidance, expertise and encouragement developing a presentation that earned Mitsuko a spot presenting at the ANCC Magnet Conference in Chicago. “I will forever be grateful to Valerie for providing that opportunity and for the lasting impact she has had on my professional growth,” Joly says.

More importantly, Hankerson continues to put her nursing expertise into practice as she cares for her mother and stepfather — a move she was able to make because her job allowed her to transfer locations to be nearer to them.

Today, Hankerson has a full plate. In addition to work and caregiving — and crocheting clothes for her fashionable daughter who, Hankerson adds, has enrolled in nursing school — Hankerson finds herself looking for that next cutting edge. “I’m always waiting for someone to challenge me,” she says with a smile. “Don’t ever tell me I can’t do something. That is not going to work.”

Joly agrees, saying, “She continues to inspire those around her and positively influence the profession.”

Challenging Hankerson, in other words, isn’t the end of something. It’s just the beginning.