My nursing journey has been long, varied, and one that I would never change. I knew early as a student in my undergraduate BSN program that I wanted to be a nurse that cared for children and their families. The journey upon graduation started with working on a small rural acute care hospital unit that cared for both adults and children. I then moved to a large urban hospital where I worked with only pediatric acute and critical care patients. I realized during these years that I wanted more of a community focus to my practice so I entered graduate school, earning a Master’s of Science in Community Health Nursing and Nursing Administration. During my graduate program, I took an elective in school nursing and I realized that this specialty practice was nursing in its truest form!
But my nursing journey still had some twists and turns before I ended up in school nursing practice. I worked in the home health and managed care industries for awhile as Director of Nursing and Director of Operations. I gained great perspective into our healthcare system in these roles and how difficult it may be for people to navigate the healthcare system in the U.S. I also did small stints in Quality Assurance/Improvement for an urban children’s hospital and was a Clinical Instructor for both undergraduate and graduate nursing students at a state university.
I finally chose what my heart and instinct pulled me to and jumped into the practice of school nursing in 2002. I have not regretted that decision for one day. More importantly, I realized every past experience in my nursing career prepared me for the role of School Nurse. I needed my education and experience in pediatric acute and chronic care (for students), adult nursing (for staff), community health, health education, management of nursing services, quality improvement, policy development, advocacy and more to practice independently in a school with up to 1200 lives counting on me each school day to keep them healthy and safe.
School nursing is on the front lines of health care. Some days School Nurses are acute care nurses providing life saving treatments such as CPR, metered-dose inhalers, epinephrine auto-injectors, glucagon, and nasal Midazolam. Other days School Nurses are teaching health lessons in a classroom or working with the local health department to implement strategies to stop a communicable disease outbreak in our communities. School Nurses are assessing and providing nursing care before students, staff, and families ever reach the formal healthcare systems in their communities. That initial contact can make all the difference in achieving the goal of health and wellness. Please join me for the expertise and insight I have gained about nursing and healthcare through my professional journey by checking into…
The School Nurse Office
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The School Nurse Office 