PEGs, students that need to be fed, and of course her diabetics, asthmatics, and seizure
conditions. While most of her paraprofessionals are great and get trained first aid skills
and basic care, we all know Liz, as the RN, is the only one allowed to administer certain
medications to these students. It was about 3 years ago when Liz decided to speak up,
with the help of the nursing department at school and start advocating for herself and her
students. During the time of new contracts being made, and a lot of work, I mean going
through her union, going state wide and reviewing policy after policy, writing formal
letters to her district, her district did end up allowing not only another nurse, but 2 more
RNs into her district to better student health and safety. Her school now employs 6 full
time and 2 part time employees all dedicated to the school health offices. Liz truly
believes everything happens for a reason and this happened to create more changes and
more of a space to have a voice to continue bettering her district in all aspects. She is
more than positive there is room for growth and this is only the beginning.
Liz has learned many lessons with this experience and one of her big messages at her
conference over the weekend is to share your story and be an advocate for our profession
as school nurses. She is so passionate about bridging the gap between education and
health and making sure her students take care of themselves outside of school and for the
rest of their lives. I don’t know about you, but I would be more than grateful if Liz was
the school nurse in my hometown! I am so grateful to have talked to her and hear her
story, but also to take some great advice with me for my school nurse journey.