62-year-old former Army tanker, Tom Alligood, now serves as a nursing assistant in the emergency room at the Dorn VA hospital in Columbia, SC. He can usually be found working in camouflage scrubs to show his veteran patients that he’s been in their place and they’ve fought the same battles. However, Alligood doesn’t mean just war battles; he is referring to homelessness, job loss, and the mental anguish that many military veterans face when trying to readjust to life in the civilian world.
Alligood’s military background is what makes him so good at his job. He can relate to his veteran patients after his challenging route from VA patient to VA caregiver. After leaving the Army, Alligood took a job managing a concrete block plant, but when the plant was sold it left Alligood jobless and deep in debt, resulting in losing his car and home. Facing mental and physical hardships that left him unfit for life in homeless shelters, Alligood took to sleeping in abandoned buildings. When a counselor told him about a VA program that put homeless veterans into counseling and sent them back to work, Alligood jumped at the opportunity to work 40 hours a week transporting veterans around the sprawling Dorn VA Medical Center.
During his time transporting veterans around Dorn, Alligood’s positive banter with his veteran patients caught the attention of Ruth Mustard, a nursing administrator at the medical center. Mustard offered Alligood the opportunity to go to school to become a certified nursing assistant, paid for by the VA as long as he would come back to help other veterans. Alligood jumped at the chance, went back to school, and quickly returned to the Dorn VA Medical Center where he worked three years in an eldercare unit before moving to the emergency department where he is now in his sixth year of service.
After his experiences serving in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Alligood says he understands veterans who are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder in particular. Alligood doesn’t view his nursing career at the VA center as a job, he considers it his calling. He gets strength and positivity from being around other veterans like himself, so he made his work at the VA hospital his personal mission to help as many of his brothers and sisters in arms as he can.
DailyNurse is honoring Tom as Nurse of the Week for his inspiring military and nursing service.
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