Team Leader and second-in-charge to
                                         Terri, Stephanie is an immensely
                                         competent nurse.

                                         She is sharp, intelligent and good at
                                         leading by example if not by motivating.
                                         Stephanie asked for a nurse's outfit for
                                         her seventh birthday. It is what she has
                                         always wanted to be. She pursued her
                                         ambition in a straight line, took the right
                                         subjects at school, took a nursing
                                         degree in college and came to All Saints
                                         Hospital as soon as she graduated. She
                                         chose to work in the General Ward
                                         because she liked the variety of
                                         experience it offered and it enabled her
                                         to keep her options open.

                                         But, still, she became restless. The job
                                         was not providing the same satisfaction
                                         she thought it would. She has become
                                         increasingly prickly and frustrated with
                                         some of the doctors because she wants
                                         to tell them she is as competent as they
                                         are.

                                         Stephanie decided she wanted to go
                                         back to study and become a doctor
                                         herself and this put an immense strain
                                         on her marriage to her childhood
                                         sweetheart, a paramedic. Her career
                                         crisis came at a time when Ben was
                                         putting enormous pressure on her to
                                         start a family.

                                         An unplanned pregnancy was joyous
                                         news for Ben, and Steph thought she
                                         could cope with what fate dealt but an
                                         early miscarriage was a great, yet
                                         shameful, relief for her. Ben and Steph's
                                         different reactions to the miscarriage as
                                         well as his own career crisis
                                         (post-traumatic shock disorder) put a
                                         strain on the marriage and seemed to
                                         propel Steph towards her friend Luke.
                                         But Ben is still the man she loves.

                                         Apart from wanting to further her career,
                                         Stephanie's reluctance to start a family
                                         stems from her less than ideal
                                         childhood. Her father left her mother for a
                                         much younger woman when Stephanie
                                         was a young girl, leaving her mother
                                         devastated and Stephanie and her
                                         brother heartbroken . As a protective
                                         mechanism to stop herself falling into
                                         the same traps as her mother,
                                         Stephanie is cautious about most things
                                         in life and imposes incredibly high
                                         standards on herself.

                                         She is not necessarily judgemental of
                                         choices other people make, but she
                                         sometimes comes across as taking the
                                         high moral ground. The reality is that her
                                         attitudes reflect her own discomfort at
                                         risk-taking.
 

Taken from the seven website