69 News Golden Apple Award winners: Deb Collins and Beth Trexler, Northampton Area High School | Lehigh Valley Regional News
When you get sick at school, you know who to call. And, last year, when a sickness began spreading that nobody knew anything about, in many schools, the nurses were the ones that administrators turned to, and said “what do we do now?”
The goal of a nurse is to keep people healthy. A school nurse does that, but with a dose of something extra.
Deb Collins is a school nurse – and the department chair – at Northampton Area High School. She says before this, they were often tending to students with diabetes or asthma, but a pandemic?
“I never would’ve imagined living through anything like this,” Collins said.
Deb’s colleague, fellow school nurse Beth Trexler, says there were so many unknowns.
Naturally, administrators turned to their medical team, to find out what to do.
“We consulted with them on what we needed to do to bring our staff in safely to get materials,” said Luke Shafnisky, principal of Northampton Area High School.
“Everything was brand new, we didn’t know how it was going to affect anybody at all,” Collins said.
“It was very nerve-wracking because you have so many children coming together under one roof,” Trexler said. “We tried to only bring sick children down to what we called the satellite area, which is our isolation area.”
If there were minor incidents, the nurses took baskets to the classroom and tended to students right there in the hallway. But all this was just the treatment part. They also did something else – they soothed. They prescribed compassion and care.
As they watched the numbers go up, they rose to the challenge. In short, these nurses became the heartbeat of the school’s success.
“Absolutely indispensable to us this year to keep our school up and running,” Shafnisky said.
It was a monumental task, when most were trying to social distance. These nurses knew the weight of trying to keep hundreds of students healthy in a pandemic, while at the same time trying to help these kids just feel normal again.
“And it certainly was a challenge,” Collins said.
As the pandemic eases, these nurses say they are hopeful we are on the mend. While their students saw things that were scary, they believe they also will see things can be restored. Because pandemic or not, that’s what nurses do – they heal.
If you know someone at your school who deserves to be recognized, please visit our 69 News Golden Apple Award page and nominate them.
