School Nursing in the Time of Pandemic ~ Tracy Fernald, Nurse Leader for the Bedford Schools

January 22, 2021
At the John Glenn Middle School nurse’s office: Lorene Simoneau, RN (l) and Tracy Fernald, RN (r). Fernald serves as Nurse Leader for the School Department’s nursing staff Kathy Webster, RN at Lane School; Nancy Thorsen, RN at Bedford High School; and Jennifer Capece, RN at Davis School. Norma Warner, RN and Simoneau travel among the schools as necessary.

 

Tracy Fernald misses the kids. And that’s saying something—she is the nurse at John Glenn  Middle School, where hybrid learning has continued since September, tiptoeing around the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It couldn’t be more different than it was prior,” Fernald explained. “We don’t have the typical revolving door of students coming in and out of the nurse’s office. Now there are a lot of phone calls, emails, case management meetings. They are such a big part of our day.”

“It’s something we all really miss—kids coming in with an illness or injury. Or maybe they just needed a break from the classroom,” she continued. “In addition, we had students come in for daily medications, procedures, or other needs. It was a busy place.”

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“We got to know the kids really well. It’s one of the best parts of our job to see kids regularly and get to know them. You also get to know the families really well.”

Now they are still seeing students, but many fewer. In addition to the reduced daily enrollment under the hybrid model, “some families whose children have special situations have chosen to be fully remote.”

“What really takes up a lot of our time is we are emailing and on the phone all the time – a lot of contact tracing, calling parents, going through quarantine timelines and isolation guidelines, going over symptoms checklists,” Fernald related.

Fernald is not only the nurse at John Glenn Middle School but also has the designation “nurse leader.” She joined the nursing staff in 1998 at Davis School. Part of her role is to visit her colleagues in the other schoolhouses.

For decades the school nurses also functioned as community health nurses, all under the auspices of the Board of Health. They became full-time school nurses in 2016. Now there is a full-time nurse at each of the four schools, plus two nurses who float to whichever school needs help, said Fernald, adding that all the nurses are licensed by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“I can’t say enough about our nurses and I feel so privileged to work with them. They are all so dedicated,” Fernald said. Kathy Webster, now at Lane School, has worked in Bedford for around 30 years. Nancy Thorsen is the long-time nurse at Bedford High School and Jennifer Capece is in her fourth year at Davis. Lorene Simoneau and Norma Warner work where most needed each day.

“We have hired some extra nurses working per diem,” Fernald added. Often the full-time nurses are tied up with phone conversations or correspondence “so when kids come in they can get what they need right away.”

The nurses “have all of the PPE (personal protective equipment) that we need,” Fernald related.

Following guidance from the state DESE and Department of Public Health, each school set up a dual-office structure. “There’s a wellness area for daily medications or other reasons. If someone is exhibiting symptoms of sickness there’s a separate area. In these cases we call the parents.”

“We have a lot of support in Bedford,” Fernald stated. “There has been such collaboration between all the different departments in town.”

“We can easily reach out to parents,” she continued. “Parents have been so good about not sending their kids to school sick and that is a huge change – not like the past when we would see them with mild symptoms. Parents are really screening their kids and calling us for advice and guidance about what the next steps should be.”

“We are on call every day of the week. We want to answer the questions that they have.”

Fernald said the nurses are awaiting word on vaccinations. “We hope to learn in the next couple of weeks,” she said, adding that the nurses are ready to administer the vaccine if called upon to do so.

Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763
Click this link to learn more about The Bedford Citizen’s first community reporter.

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Diane Guiry
January 23, 2021 4:51 pm

MY HERO!!

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