College Student Challenge Scholarship

I’m a US Navy veteran, a wife, and a Mother of 3, so I’ve had to navigate difficult situations personally, with family, coworkers and patients. I’ve taken anger management courses and leadership courses during my career and have had to apply the skills to real life scenarios. I’m currently a nurse and while working in a hospital, two of my coworkers, patient care technicians (PCTs), got into an argument. It escalated quickly when one PCT got up from her chair at the nurse’s station and ran towards her counterpart. I and another nurse managed to pull them apart, and I escorted the PCT that ran towards the other PCT from the floor via the elevator. While on the elevator, I emphasized how unprofessional both of them were and how much she could lose if she had hit her coworker. I brought to her attention that she was in nursing school and could possibly be suspended for her behavior if this got back to her program director. I reminded her that she could’ve lost her job. I sat with her in the hospital lobby until she calmed down enough to go back to the floor. Once we returned, the charge nurse rearranged the assignments so the PCTs were limited in their interactions for the remainder of the shift. We had no further problems and the shift ended well. About a week later, my coworker came and thanked me for talking with her, reminding her of what she would lose if she allowed her anger to get the best of her. It helped her to reevaluate how she responds to perceived disrespect and take steps to learn how to manage her emotions. We all have choices to make in life. You may not be a supervisor or in management, but we have developed life skills that we can apply to our lives and share with others. We should want to see others around us live and operate in their best selves. If we have the opportunity to help them, then we should. In doing so, we are helping society as a whole, one person at a time. I believe helping my coworker see how her anger was affecting her and those around her gave her the confidence and strength to seek the help she needed. This in turn helped her manage her emotions in every area of her life, at home, at work, and at school.