Amy Widderich is a woman in near constant motion.
Whether it’s walking a queasy child from a classroom, taking a temperature or dispensing hugs and encouragement to anxious kids, Widderich, the nurse at Grove Park Elementary School in Burlington, rarely gets to complete a sentence before she’s interrupted by a child, or a teacher, or one of the other staff at the school.
“I get here early so I can catch up on email, check for faxes, get myself organized, and in the morning I usually greet the kids,” she said when asked how her day looks. “I have a couple of students who come in and take daily meds, and then the flow of kids off of the bus starts.”
Sure enough, once kids start swarming into the building, a handful of them make their way into the health room next to the principal’s office. By 7:40 a.m., there’s one child with autism sitting on the day bed eating breakfast, another arrives complaining of a tummy ache, all the while a teacher bends Widderich’s ear about a student whose psychiatric medicine seems to be making him more agitated.
Widderich takes it all in stride. What she’s able to do — dig in, get to know students and staff, teach prevention activities, monitor illnesses, administer medications and more — has been made possible, in part, because Grove Park is the only school she’s responsible for.
But across North Carolina, most local school districts are unable to have a nurse in every school. About 41 percent of school nurses serve one school, 36 percent serve two and 22 percent of school nurses serve three or more schools.
This Adamance County school nurse is fortunate to have only ONE school as an assignment.
Currently in Guilford County each school nurse has 3-4 schools. County Commissioners funded 4 school nurses and 1 supervisor in last year’s budget. When nurses served up to 5 schools per week.
Five more nurses are in the county budget for this 2018-2019 year. We have much to do to achieve our goal of one nurse in every school in Guilford County.