WINSTON-SALEM (August 6, 2021) – Educators teach nurses how to calm nervous patients. Sometimes instinct does the rest.

That’s what happened March 10 at a pop-up Novant Health COVID vaccine clinic at St. Peter’s Church and World Outreach Center in Winston-Salem.

Vergie Hart’s prayers and her children convinced her she needed to be vaccinated. But Hart, 68, freely acknowledges a phobia.

“I’m afraid of needles – that’s my problem,” she says in the accompanying video.

Enter Mel McMillan, a licensed practical nurse and administrator who started her nursing education at Forsyth Technical Community College.

“She was shaking,” McMillan said. “I said, ‘We’re going to get through this together.’

“I just opened up my mouth and I started singing,” said McMillan, who comes from a church-going, musical family. “I didn’t plan on it.”

The two agreed that McMillan would count 1-2-3, then start singing, then deliver the vaccine.

“She skipped the 1-2-3,” said Hart. “She started singing. She made me feel so calm and at ease.”

And when McMillan pronounced “All done,” the two kept singing – in harmony.

“This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made,” they concluded.