Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Charity Gantt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Charity , thanks for joining us today. How did you get your first job in the field that you practice in today?

I just finished nursing school and celebrated with a pinning ceremony 12/9/2019. The world as we know it was shifting pretty fast with talks of a new virus. There wasn’t a name for it just yet but it was known to be spreading rapidly across the nation. I was questioning myself if I really wanted to be a nurse right now, I was scared beyond measure. All of my family kept asking me, when I was taking my state boards and I would casually shrug it off, because true be told I wasn’t too sure of I was. Then something happened while I was sitting in church there was a medical emergency in the bathroom one of the little boys nose was bleeding, and they came and got me out of service, I told them to notify his mother and attempted to stop the bleeding. The next week while sitting in church again there was another medical emergency and once again they came and got me, when I looked up I was surrounded by a group of CNA (certified nurse assistant) and I thought surely I had to be getting punked. After service I had someone come up to me and say take my boards. So I made an appointment for 1/23/20. I didn’t tell anyone and I went and passed my state boards! I felt like all those situations were encouraging and giving me the confidence I needed to have in myself. After successfully passing my boards I started applying for nursing jobs in the beginning of the pandemic with what we know now to be COVID-19. I no longer had fear of working in the hospital and I went on to be a travel nurse, helping not only the patients by my fellow colleagues. I’m very happy with my decision to press my way through my fear.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have always wanted to be a nurse, since I was 5 years old. I have allergies, eczema and asthma. I had to take medication and my school nurse at Vermont Elementary was Ms. Liz, she called me smily every time I came into her office, cause that’s all I did was smile I may have been a little shy too. I was always comfortable around her. I knew then that I wanted to give every patient that experience. It can be scary going into the doctor office but If I can make your visit as pleasant as I can then that’s what i’ll do. When I was about 12 years old my aunt was taking me to the doctor for a check up regarding my asthma and we ran into Ms. Liz and her mom I didn’t know at the time Ms. Liz was dying of cancer. She recognized me first and all I did was smile as I sat on her lap and all she was cry and hold me! Recalling this story always brings me to tears because I am the nurse I am today because of that encounter with Ms. Liz. I meet my patients where they are and not put expectations on where I think they should be. When I have high risk patients I try to share a little of me, not to force them to change them but to encourage them. We all started somewhere and we have to be mindful not to judge anyone. I love what I do. It’s not a job it’s a lifestyle. This has helped me as the event coordinator with nonprofit Survive. We feed the homeless many times throughout the year and it takes having a soft gentle heart dealing with that population. It’s a very humbling experience. Although they are going through a tough period in their lives they are always smiling and thankful.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Finding ways to stay encouraged. Life can be hard and unpredictable. So much stress and anxiety and we have to stay encouraged. With family, with colleagues, with children, everywhere. It’s easy to be discouraged by focusing on current events, current situations that are not going in our favor. But we must stay encouraged and believe things will turn around in our favor.

Also, working as a team. With Survive, INC we partner with different organizations, and sometimes we can bump heads or allow our pride to get in the way. There was an incident I had to go back and apologize to someone we were partnering with. In that situation it didn’t matter who was right or wrong but there needed to be peace and I had to lead by example.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Not really a lesson but a trait. Negative self talk. We can be our own worse critic and I was my own. I would always speak negative about my self, if I failed a test or if I over spent my monies before pay day and couldn’t afford gas for the week. I had to learn to be nicer to myself. Give myself grace. Forgive myself and as I started practicing that I noticed situations were changing around me. As a nurse, I cannot be negative.
As a leader in the community working with Survive, I can not be negative. It first had to start with me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: http://instagram.com/sheshealedandfine