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Patti Poston Overcoming Adversity & Finding Strength By Abigail Borland , 2022-2023 Imprint Up Close Reporter
Patricia Poston , who goes by Patti , grew up as a military kid from Panama City , Florida . She has been married to her husband , an active duty member , for fifteen years , and they have several children and a dog . She is also a new grad with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Chaminade University of Honolulu , Hawaii , where she graduated in December 2022 as an advanced transfer student . But Patti ’ s journey to nursing began long before this .
Several years ago , struggling to cope with the stress of being the wife of an active duty member , Patti tried to numb her pain from Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ( CPTSD ) and loneliness with alcohol . Although she had always wanted to pursue a career as a nurse , addiction and a lack of stability from moving every three years made her feel that if she ever started nursing school , she would not be able to finish .
Then Patti went to a rehab facility in San Diego , CA and met a nurse named Jennifer . Jennifer had struggled with addiction herself in the past , and she encouraged Patti that there was no reason someone with an addiction history could not go into the nursing profession . Jennifer showed that her experiences could actually help Patti as a nurse better empathize with her patients . Inspired , Patti determined to finally pursue her dream of a nursing career and enroll in nursing school .
But getting to graduation wasn ’ t easy . Between starting school during the pandemic
with a broken ankle , living in a hotel room because she could not find housing , and dealing with water contamination in the Joint Base Pearl-Harbor Hickam ( JBPHH ), Patti has overcome a lot of setbacks to her academic career . The hardest hit came while sitting in a pharmacology & pharmacokinetics lecture held over Zoom , when Patti received news of her mother ’ s death . Devastated , she struggled to move forward , but her pharmacology instructor , Professor Denise Cooper , encouraged her to focus on mourning her loss . She offered Patti advice on managing her bereavement and advocated for her as a student .
Another person who helped Patti through this period was Felicia , whom Patti met through a service learning project . A social worker and breast-cancer survivor who also recently lost her mother , Felicia inspired Patti and they kept in touch even after the program ended . Felicia gave Patti spiritual guidance , encouraging her with Marianist principles and Aloha values , which have given Patti strength . When Patti wrote a poem for the one-year anniversary of her mother ’ s death , Felicia encouraged her to submit it to the book project “ Courage Poured Into My Heart : Stories of Hope , Grief , and Love ,” a collection of creative works from local people dealing with grief . Patti agreed , sharing her art despite fearing rejection and being in the spotlight .
None of these challenges has hindered Patti ’ s active involvement in clinicals and professional nursing organizations , however . One of her favor-
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