A long story but it happened to me. I saw a student crying. She was almost at the end of the LPN program. I sat down with her away from others, and she explained the stressors of having an infant at home, the father left and financially strapped. I did not know about the "GAS adaption " but I knew that the the higher the stressors ,the higher the stress it put on the heart and blood vessels. So , I had a chat with her to explain the "fight or flight "response the body goes through when under stress. .She listened ,when I informed her that she has to stay strong because the " little boy " as she called him, has no one else but you ,she froze for a moment and stopped crying . Something happened to her at that moment. She stopped crying .. She found a " nice person to baby sit" and remained in the program and graduated . I put the nursing pin on her. Today I learned that I was able to flatten the "initial dip " on the curve on the GAS system. We do not see things around us some time when we are busy including myself. It was a teachable moment for me . I became a better teacher since that day.
