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This is the week we celebrate nurses wherever they work. Starting May 6, Nurse Appreciation Week highlights the contributions of nurses from hospitals to schools, culminating in Florence Nightingale’s birthday on May 12.
With a special day dedicated to school nurses on May 7, BenitoLink headed out to talk to Angela Heredia, the credentialed school nurse at Hollister High School.
From stomach aches to broken bones, Heredia is prepared to deal with most any ailment. She and a small team of workers care for the high school that’s a little town itself with roughly 3,300 students.
“There’s never a dull moment,” Heredia said. “We always kind of feel like we’re on a little SWAT team. Like, I have my backpack ready to go with all my emergency stuff.”
Heredia is on site during emergencies and is often in charge of deciding when to call 911 in instances of severe injury, seizures, or allergic reactions.
Before she took on her role at Hollister High in 2022, she spent more than 20 years as a hospital nurse.
“Her expertise is a huge asset to families and students as she provides resources and advice,” Heredia’s supervisor, Dr. Paulette Cobb said. “We are very lucky to have such a caring school nurse.”
With 20 to 30 students in and out of the school’s Health Office every day, Heredia and her office stay busy. There are many students who visit regularly including two with special needs who are unable to manage their diabetes independently and need consistent care.
“With the amount of students, of course it’s challenging,” Heredia said. “Our main [focus] are the diabetics, the asthmatics and the kids that have seizures. That right there is a huge undertaking because we do have quite a bit. I would say there’s 10 to 15 diabetics usually every year and then asthmatics are, like, up to 120 that I know of. There’s at least 15 that have some type of seizure disorder.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the school’s Health Office has grown considerably and now has four full-time staff members, including two health aides and newly appointed Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) Rachel Hall. Staff aides spend their time between students with extra needs around campus and helping when they’re available in the office.
“It definitely takes a team to do what we do,” Hall said.
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