She had to work three jobs just to save up for study.
"It has been a six-year slog," the 26-year-old masters student told AAP.
Ms Donovan, along with aspiring physiotherapists, speech pathologists and other health workers must do months' worth of free placement work to earn their qualifications, paying out of pocket for the lot.
She joined independent MPs and senators on Tuesday, armed with a 43,000-strong petition, to call for paid practical placements as part of their education to extend to all allied health workers.
Some students travel thousands of kilometres for their placements, which require hundreds of unpaid hours.
"At the moment, these courses do cater to a particular type of person, that's someone who has financial backing from someone else", Ms Donovan said.
A Canberra native, she works three nine-hour days a week on top of study, and will soon be commuting two hours a day to a regional placement.
Future teachers, nurses, midwives or social workers are eligible for $339 a week during their practical placements thanks to a scheme the federal government debuted in 2024.
But placements still presented a huge financial barrier for young people wanting to fill critical health workforce shortages, Ms Donovan said.
"There are so many hidden costs that people don't know about," she said.
Some of these are unavoidable, such as registration fees, police checks, vaccinations and placement-specific textbooks.
"I know people that have stopped after their honours, and they have taken a hiatus, maybe due to needing to save," Ms Donovan said.
"They've transferred into different workforces because it's just not feasible."
More than four-in-five health occupations were in shortage in 2023, the latest figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show.
Independent senator David Pocock, who joined the politicians advocating the change, relayed the story of a physiotherapy lecturer who on the first day of uni told their students "if you don't have wealthy parents, start saving now".
"We can do better than becoming a country where you have to have wealthy parents to become an allied health professional," Senator Pocock said.
Expanding the payment would draw $290 million from federal coffers over four years, independent MP Helen Haines estimated.
The current program, available to 73,000 tertiary education students, will have cost the government $427 million by July 2028.
The petition to broaden the paid practical scheme was tabled in parliament by Ms Haines and Senator Pocock.
Ms Donovan, who has stayed the course, will finally start seeing pay slips as a psychologist from 2027.
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