Special acknowledgment goes to the Livingston New Jersey Public Schools (LPS) for creating a video celebrating their school nurses. This is what happened at their most recent Board of Education meeting:
In addition to introducing each of the district’s school nurses during Monday’s Livingston Board of Education (LBOE) meeting, the Livingston Public Schools (LPS) district also honored its “Healthcare Heroes” through a video compilation featuring messages of gratitude as well as a gift of LPS scrubs donated by the Livingston Education Foundation (LEF) in honor of their extraordinary efforts to keep LPS kids safe.
Well done LPS, I am sure your school nurses feel appreciated and valued. Their extraordinary efforts during this unprecedented school year have made a difference in the health and safety of this school community. Introducing each school nurse at the Board of Education meeting shows appreciation for work well done and brings school nursing front and center to parents and community members. Community connections are helpful in typical years, but in a pandemic, they are priceless.
LPS school nurses are exemplars for what is happening across the country to keep students safe and healthy. I hope that these types of public celebrations are the norm, maybe they will be moving forward. School nursing is no longer a “hidden healthcare system.” A well-deserved bright spotlight is being shone on school nurses.
Published by Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN
Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN, is a Nationally Certified School Nurse (NCSN), currently in her 22nd year as a New Jersey school nurse in the Camden City School District. Robin is the Director for New Jersey to the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) Board. She is proud to be a Johnson & Johnson School Health Leadership Fellow and past Program Mentor. Robin is the honored recipient of multiple awards for her work in school nursing and population health. These awards include, 2019 and 2020 National Association of School Nurses President’s Award, 2018 NCSN School Nurse of the Year, 2017 Johnson & Johnson School Nurse of the Year, and the New Jersey Department of Health 2017 Population Health Hero Award. Robin serves as faculty in the School Nurse Certificate Program at Rutgers University-Camden School of Nursing, where she teaches the next generation of school nurses. She was presented the 2018 Rutgers University – Camden Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award for Part-time Faculty. Robin writes a weekly blog called The Relentless School Nurse. She also writes a monthly column in My American Nurse, the official journal of the American Nurses Association. Robin’s work is included as a case study in The Future of Nursing Report 2020-2030. You can follow Robin on Twitter at @RobinCogan.
View all posts by Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN
1 thought on “The Relentless School Nurse: How One District Celebrated Their School Nurses”
How nice! It is always a good feeling to be appreciated. And school nurses deserve it.
How nice! It is always a good feeling to be appreciated. And school nurses deserve it.