When asked, “Who wants to be a COVID nurse?” Gwendolyn Wilkins quickly responded, “Yes, please.” On that day, Gwendolyn set her martial art fearlessness into motion in her nursing career. Listen here or the link below: https://anchor.fm/andrea-harkins/episodes/Gwendolyn-Wilkins—Eclectic-Martial-Artist-and-COVID-Nurse-eir7d4
A year out of nursing school Gwendolyn volunteered to be a COVID nurse when the floor in the hospital where she worked became the COVID unit. Her years of martial art practice taught her a very valuable lesson – fearlessness and confident commitment- and she vigorously uses them in life and in nursing.
Read below to learn more about Gwendolyn and make sure you listen to her exuberant interview on The Martial Arts Woman Podcast! (Click link above)
Bio:
Gwendolyn Wilkins started her martial arts journey “gently” in 2006 with Yang-style Tai Chi Chuan after four years of studying Hatha Yoga. During her time with Tai Chi, she learned the short form, long form and sword form.
A move out of the area in late 2008 caused her to search out another martial arts practice. In late 2009, at the age of 30, she started studying Karate at a local Karate Club that met in the middle school gym. This style was called “Nemuru”, founded in 1972 by Master Joe Sagarese. The club was handed off to Grandmaster Paul Munchbach in 1982; and he was the head instructor when Gwen arrived. Nemuru is a spin-off of Shukokai Karate with elements of Kyokushin, Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Jut-Jitsu, Aikido, Kobudo, and other martial arts.
Gwen enjoyed the more casual atmosphere of the Karate club, rather than the rigid formality one would expect from a formal Dojo and quickly advanced to 4th Kyu in about a year and a half. Finding her skill level had plateaued and fearing that advancing further would require more “aggression” than she was comfortable with, Gwen left the Karate Club in mid-2011 to pursue other outlets.
Realizing that it wasn’t aggression that was needed to continue, but rather confidence in skill and the dedication to study hard, she returned in early 2014 and earned her 3rd Kyu by the end of that school year. She achieved her 2nd Kyu in October of 2015.
Shortly after that, several events transpired to again take her away from martial arts; this time not so much of her choosing. Making the most of an unfortunate situation, she enrolled in a local community college in mid-2016 with the hopes of getting into nursing school, which she did, graduating in May of 2019. She started working as an RN shortly after that and has worked as a COVID nurse since the Coronavirus came to her area in March of this year.
Gwen intends to return to the martial arts again once gym closures forced by COVID-19 lift, hoping to study at a Dojo founded by other students of Joe Sagarese in the hopes of maintaining continuity in style.
The principles learned from Karate have certainly helped her off the mat as well as on! The biggies have been: fearlessness and “confident commitment.”
Fearlessness comes into play when encountering potentially dangerous situations either out in the world, or within the realm of nursing (with potentially violent patients).
“Confident commitment” refers to making a decision and sticking with it, even if it means “faking it till you make it”. Just as it’s impossible to correctly execute a self-defense technique in class if you’re skittish or hesitant; it’s also impossible to properly given an injection or place an IV if you don’t “confidently commit” to your action.
In this photo, Gwendolyn is dressed as an old-fashioned nurse, portraying her love for nursing. But Gwendolyn is more than just a martial artist and nurse. She was a birth doula for about six years. She’s been involved with a Star Trek-related project called “New Voyages/Phase II” for several years. She participates in community plays when she gets the chance. Other hobbies include crafting, sewing, costume-making and belly dance. She runs a small crafting business with her best friend called “Dancer’s Dream Boutique”: https://dancers-dream.com/?v=920f83e594a1
She’s also an artist and originally went to school for Computer Animation back when that was a fairly new field. She worked as a graphic artist for about fifteen years before becoming a nurse. She’s also a writer of several unpublished stories and maintains a blog called “Gwen’s Worlds” http://gwensworlds.blogspot.com/
Check out Gwendolyn’s links provided above.
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