Before Nicole Everitt became a nontraditional medical student, she was a high schooler visiting a friend in the hospital. That experience proved to be life-changing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t describe that, except it was electric,\u201d Everitt said about walking through the hospital. \u201cSuddenly, everything was in Technicolor.\u201d<\/p>\n
She researched hospital jobs such as food service and custodial work \u2014 but becoming a doctor felt out of reach. Everitt did not think a medical career would be possible because of her profound hearing loss.<\/p>\n
Her partial deafness mitigated by recent technological advancements, Everitt, 36, is chasing her dream of becoming a doctor at full speed. The first-year student at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at UNT Health Fort Worth aspires to become a surgeon.<\/p>\n
Although medicine caught her interest as a child, Everitt\u2019s initial foray into higher education was to study political science. When she enrolled in the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio after graduating high school, she saw the field as a way to use her writing and argumentative skills to make a difference.<\/p>\n
Part way through her studies, Everitt took a break from school because she was not academically performing as well as she wanted and was pregnant with her first child.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really adamant that I would finish my degree someday,\u201d Everitt said. \u201cI just was really like, I have to wait until I have a better idea of what I want and a better idea of how I learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
She soon found herself pulled to medicine once again, reading journal articles for fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the thing that kept me grounded and alive during those first few years of young motherhood,\u201d Everitt said.<\/p>\n
As she told herself she would, Everitt went back to school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now a mother of six, she earned her bachelor\u2019s degree from the University of North Texas at Dallas in December.<\/p>\n
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Nicole Everitt, 36, left, uses her digital stethoscope to read Eleanor Everitt\u2019s heartbeat during a stethoscope ceremony July 23, 2025, at the UNT Health Medical Education and Training building in west Fort Worth. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n
Everitt applied to 11 Texas medical schools, but she decided on UNT Health because of its location and the connection she already felt to the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first started thinking and dreaming about coming back, this is the school I looked at,\u201d she said. \u201cI came to conferences here and I participated in an event because it felt like home. Before I even got an acceptance, it felt like home, so I was really hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n
To avoid a long commute cutting into her study hours and time with her children, Everitt and her husband, Chris, recently moved their family from Forney to Fort Worth.<\/p>\n
She is a few weeks into classes, and learning is already in full swing. Everitt and her classmates dove into molecular biology and osteopathic manipulative medicine, a hands-on treatment method used by osteopathic providers<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited to learn, and I\u2019m really excited to be able to apply that learning in such a way that I get to serve other people,\u201d Everitt said.<\/p>\n Her kids share her excitement. To encourage her, they write her notes.<\/p>\n You\u2019re doing great, Mom!\u00a0<\/p>\n You can do it!<\/p>\n \u201cI get little moments like that, and they mean the world to me,\u201d Everitt said.<\/p>\n On July 23, her husband and children watched as she participated in a ceremony in which new medical students received their first stethoscopes, gifted by donors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Everitt was given a stethoscope with special capabilities. It connects to her hearing aids, a technology that did not exist when she was a child but helps her chase her dream today.<\/p>\n With Everitt\u2019s youngest child Ignatius listening through the earpieces, mother and son held the chestpiece over her daughter Eleanor\u2019s heart together.<\/p>\n Thump-thump. Thump-thump.<\/p>\n Everitt hopes her children will learn to be resilient and pursue their passions from watching her journey.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really such a privilege to get to show my kids that life doesn\u2019t always have to follow this perfectly straight pathway, and sometimes it doesn\u2019t, and it still can work out so beautifully,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n McKinnon Rice is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n Republish This Story<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Goss-StethoscopeCeremony-14.jpg\")
Nicole Everitt was gifted an Eko digital stethoscope rather than the traditional Littmann stethoscope during a stethoscope ceremony July 23, 2025, at the UNT Health Medical Education and Training building in west Fort Worth. The digital stethoscope connects to her hearing aids. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Goss-StethoscopeCeremony-12.jpg\")
Nicole Everitt, 36, left, shows Ignatius Everitt, middle, and Eleanor Everitt how to use her digital stethoscope during a stethoscope ceremony July 23, 2025, at the UNT Health Medical Education and Training building in west Fort Worth. (Mary Abby Goss | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n
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