Perennially "unlucky in love", Donna fits the tart with a heart stereotype. Her numerous romances during her tenure earned her the nickname "Nurse 'Action' Jackson". In 2004, she had a lesbian liaison with Mickie. The scene in which they kissed was edited to half its original length after being deemed too explicit for pre-watershed broadcast. Later that year, Jacobs stated that her ideal storyline would be for Donna to find a good man and gain a promotion, hoping she would find someone who would treat her well and help her give up her recreational drug habit. Her love interests included physiotherapist Justin Fuller, registrars Ed Keating (Rocky Marshall) and Mubbs Hussein (Ian Aspinall), manager Bradley Hume, senior house officer Sean Thompson (Chinna Wodu), and a love triangle with married consultant Michael Spence and his cardiothoracic colleague Connie Beauchamp (Amanda Mealing). Although Michael did not initially disclose to Donna that he was married, Jacobs stated that her character was aware of this "deep down", but was unfortunately unperturbed. He treated her badly, to the point that he would only have sex with her in a toilet stall; nonetheless Jacobs assessed that Donna was in love with him, believing him to be "the one" and different from her previous lovers, branding her deluded in this respect.