A school nurse is so much more than a school nurse.
That’s the message Eileen Latini and Barbara Wisniewski would like the public to understand. Latini has been the school nurse for a decade at Kenneth R. Olson Middle School, and Wisniewski has worked as the Tabernacle Elementary School nurse since 2007.
“We’re always working to better ourselves. We’re giving advice. We’re getting advice. We’re looking for insight. There’s always improvement. There’s always fine-tuning. There’s always education,” Latini said. “And we thrive on that.”
There are 374 students at OMS and 372 at TES, and at any given time, any number of them can be walking through the door of the nurse’s office. It could be for anything, from a lost tooth to an asthma attack to an emotional crisis. In the 2014–2015 school year, Wisniewski saw students 5,800 times, and for Latini it was 3,046.
“We have to be seen as trusted individuals to these children. We have to be approachable,” Latini said. “It’s critical.”
“If they’re afraid of us,” Wisniewski added, “they’re not going to come down for the help that they need. They’ll remain silent and something serious could be brewing.”
Building that relationship and rapport starts in pre-kindergarten, when students come down to Wisniewski’s office with a lost tooth or scraped knee. She gives them a treasure box for their tooth. They might get a sticker for bravery.
“There’s reasons I do that type of stuff, especially with my little ones,” Wisniewski said. “So when they come to my office, they’re not afraid of me. So that when they do get injured or there’s something serious going on, they know who I am and they are comfortable with me.”
Educational backgrounds
Before working in a school, Latini and Wisniewski both clocked years of experience in the nursing field.
Latini earned her bachelor’s of science degree from Farleigh Dickenson University and went to Rowan University for her school nursing certification. She worked as a pediatric nurse for 13 years before becoming a school nurse.
“You are a registered nurse with a bachelor’s of science in nursing before being accepted into a program for school nursing,” Latini said, “and then you take credits above and beyond your bachelor’s in school law, school health, screenings, policies and procedures specifically surrounding the pediatric and school-aged child.”
After graduating from Mercer Medical Center School of Nursing and earning her bachelor’s of science degree in nursing from what was then Trenton State College, Wisniewski started working at Deborah Heart and Lung Center in 1981, in units including adult cardiology, adult pulmonary vascular, cardiac pediatric and critical care. She returned to The College of New Jersey for her school nursing certification.
Both Latini and Wisniewski worked in other schools before landing in the Tabernacle School District.
“Most school nurses have this background,” Wisniewski said. “It’s not just Eileen and I having all this education and experience. Most school nurses, this is a second career for them. They’re coming out of hospitals with oodles of experience and knowledge to bring to the communities.”
The experience is vital, according to Latini and Wisniewski, because they are the only medical practitioners in the building.
“We’re really confident in our skills. You have to be confident in your assessment, in your ability to delegate, in your ability to respond to a crisis,” Latini said. “There’s a level of confidence that comes from the years of experience.”
From CPR to EpiPens
Beyond ice packs and bandages, Latini and Wisniewski are equipped and trained to handle any number of medical crises within their buildings, and this includes for any visitors to the schools who may have a need for medical assistance.
“It’s kind of like what an ER is like,” Wisniewski said. “You don’t know what’s coming through your door.”
The nurse’s office is equipped with EpiPens for all students with known allergies, in addition to extra EpiPens placed in the office and around the school for someone with no diagnosed allergy who may go into anaphylactic shock.
Latini and Wisniewski spearheaded Janet’s Law in their buildings, which requires all schools to have an AED on site in addition to at least five school employees certified in CPR/AED. The nurses brought representatives in to survey the buildings to see how many AEDs they should have available. The duo trains staff, coaches and after-school activity advisors in CPR on a two-year rotation.
“Barbara and I take outside classes to be professionally certified,” Latini said. “Both of us have coordinated Code Blue teams in both of our schools. Those are volunteer staff members willing to respond primarily for cardiac crises.”
By law, they have nebulizers at the schools and have taken courses in asthma care.
They train staff members under their own nursing licenses to act as delegates for EpiPens and Glucagon, an emergency injection for diabetics, in the rare occurrence of a nurse not being present in the school. Having these trained delegates was a new law for this school year, and figuring out how to implement it in the Tabernacle school district falls on the school nurses.
“We rely heavily on our Burlington County School Nurse Association and the New Jersey State School Nurses Association to provide us with insight and guidelines as to how to implement laws that are required of us,” Latini said.
And through everything, Latini and Wisniewski must maintain student confidentiality and work within the laws and guidelines of the state Department of Education, Department of Health, Nurse Practice Act of New Jersey and others.
“We’re not just putting on Band-Aids,” Wisniewski said. “School nursing is like a clinic and an emergency room put together.”
It’s not always medical
“When we see kids here in my office, a lot of the visits are extended and multi-layered. It’s a kid that comes in for a stomach ache that has been found to have emotional issues because there’s issues at home, or because they’re having problems with friends,” Latini said. “You’re talking to them for extended periods of time. You’re hooking them in with the counselor. You’re talking to their teacher so they’re not falling behind. You may have to bring the parent in to facilitate a discussion.”
Latini and Wisniewski want their students to know the nurse’s office is a safe space. When there is a community crisis, such as the recent ATV accident that injured two classmates, students feeling overwhelmed can come to the school nurse.
“Very often I’ll say to a kid who might be wanting to see a counselor, ‘You come to me and I’ll get you there,’” Latini said. “It’s always safe to come here.”
Both nurses also work closely with community agencies, helping to coordinate holiday giving for needy families at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Everything is confidential.
“The Tabernacle Woman’s Association is a great supporter of our schools. The local food banks have been wonderful,” Latini said. “They’re very responsive for our requests for assistance. If we call, they help us, no questions asked.”
Honors and awards
Earlier this month was National Nurses Day and National Nurses Week. With a smile, Latini said it’s recently been “an embarrassment of riches” in the Tabernacle school district.
Latini was chosen as the Burlington County School Nurses Association School Nurse of the Year and was named the Burlington County School Nurse That Makes a Difference by the New Jersey State School Nurses Association. Wisniewski is the Educational Specialist of the Year at OES.
“We all work hard, and it was great to be recognized,” Latini said, “but to be recognized by your peers is a special honor. We all know what we put into this job, and to be considered one of the ones to be noted, it’s a very good feeling.”
Wisniewski was the one to nominate Latini for her state award.
“When one school nurse gets an award, it’s really an award for all of us as a profession,” Wisniewski said, “because every one of us graduates from the school of nursing.”
