Naval Health Clinic Corpus Christi staff completed the Franklin Covey seminar, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People," Jan. 27.

The three-day workshop, founded on the teachings of author Dr. Stephen R. Covey and geared toward people who manage several projects, face expanding workloads, and stiff deadlines, was attended by Lt. Andrea M. Fluke, Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Timothy R. Christiansen, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Misty R. Banks, and Hospital Corpsmen 3rd Class Kelly E. Bartin and Diego O. Jaime.

Some of the seminar's goals are intended to motivate participants to develop a clear definition of top priorities to achieve balance and increase productivity through weekly and daily planning, and to build strong relationships based on mutual trust.

Navy Nurse Lt. Angela R. Healy, NHC Corpus Christi education and training department head and certified curriculum instructor, encouraged students to live the habits rather than simply learn them.

"I can give them the tools, but it is up to each individual to determine how to use them," she said. "I genuinely believe if they put the principles into practice, then they will see significant changes in their professional as well as personal lives."

This is Healy's second seminar to teach since she reintroduced it to NHC Corpus Christi in October 2016. Before then, it had not been offered at the command for several years.

"I do it because people have so much potential, and it's a lot of unrecognized potential by themselves," said Healy. "This gives you a new perspective on what you can really accomplish in yourself, and it is really fulfilling to see the light bulb go on for people when they come to this course and realize, 'I never thought of it from that perspective before; yeah, you're right! I'm not stuck, I'm not stuck!'"

Some new participants expected the seminar to solely focus on job success, but Healy said that is only part of the emphasis.

"I want others to know that the workshop is so much more than just becoming a successful business person or a successful Sailor," she said. "It's about, 'How do I achieve my biggest and wildest dreams for my life by employing these proven principles of human effectiveness?' It's mastery of self. 'I'm comfortable and confident in my own skin, and I'm able to work really well and develop new meaningful and effective relationships with others.'"

Healy's personal experience with self-mastery occurred over six years after she had graduated from Perri High School in 1995, near her hometown of Davenport, Iowa.

She said she didn't do well in college, so she enlisted in the U.S. Navy and became an electronics technician.

"I really wanted to be a nurse, but I couldn't afford to go to nursing school," Healy said. "So I was hopeful that not only would the military help me develop my own internal disciple, but that it would also give me some educational benefits so that I could afford to go to school. And then at my six year mark I was accepted into the Seaman to Admiral Program for the nursing option, and I went to nursing school in Denver, Colorado -- Regency University."

There are other nurses in Healy's family, and she said part of what drives people into nursing is the chance to help others.

"My entire family is wired to be helpers; I come from a long lineage of nurses," she said. "Both of my grandmothers were nurses, [and] eight of my aunts are nurses; I have a whole bunch of cousins that are nurses, and this course fits perfectly with that mindset."

After the seminar, Healy said participants should be able to see, understand, and interpret the world through a new paradigm using newly-acquired skills to influence others while communicating.

"I see where they are able to recognize situations where they have already used some of the skills and the techniques that we talk about in the course, and they're able to relate that and see the positive outcome that those skills had in that one particular situation," Healy remarked about her students. "And it makes it a lot easier for them to translate that then into other more potentially-challenging situations."

One of those students spoke about the advantage he recognized.

"It is a completely 180 [degree] way of thinking while acknowledging certain situations," said Jaime, a Houston native who enlisted in the U.S. Navy October 2011, "and how sometimes something that could come at you in a negative aspect, through the way you view it and the questions that you ask. By stepping back you can completely transform that situation to benefit you and benefit others, and benefit together and work as a group."

When asked about the key takeaway from the seminar, Jaime simply replied, "Seven goals; there's not one key! There are several keys depending on how you apply them. Make sure you know which key goes into what lock, and make sure you turn it the right way to open that door."

The quarterly seminar is open to all NHC Corpus Christi military and civil service civilian employees assigned with chain of command approval.

NHC Corpus Christi and Naval Branch Health Clinics Kingsville and Fort Worth provide ambulatory care services to over 13,000 enrolled patients comprised of military active duty, their family members, retirees and their family members in south Texas and Dallas/Fort Worth. In addition, the command's detachment in San Antonio provides primary care services to Navy students at the Medical Education and Training Campus at Fort Sam Houston, and case management services and medical board management to Navy and Marine Corps wounded, ill, and injured (WII) warriors at San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC).

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