National School Nurse Appreciation Day is celebrated to honor all the school nurses across the country who work hard to ensure the well-being of students and staff. This year the recognition took place on May 11th, the Wednesday of National Nurses Week, May 6 to May 12.

School Nurse Robyn Wisti graduated from Ohio State University with a four year bachelor’s degree in nursing and has been a key part of the Rock Ridge community for seven years. Prior to working at Rock Ridge, Wisti worked as a pediatric nurse and an operating room nurse, but now she enjoys her time at the school with the “extremely nice and accommodating” front office staff. She not only enjoys assisting students when they are not unwell, but also enjoys talking to them. “I definitely have an open door policy and I hope just by being pleasant and being respectful to them, they know they can come when they need to,” Wisti said.

Junior Sierra Pascual visits Wisti often and describes her as “kind and compassionate.” “She always has everyone’s best interest at heart,” Pascual said. “[She] does whatever she can to make people comfortable and feel better.”

Pascual recalls when Wisti wrote her a pass to use the elevator and how the experience has made her feel safe and comfortable at school. “Whenever I go, she makes me feel really safe and welcome,” Pascual said. “She wrote me a year-long elevator pass because it was something that I needed so it makes me feel safer taking the elevator when I need to.”

School nurses are required to earn a four year bachelor’s degree in science and nursing and then pass the National Council Licensure Examination, also known as the NCLEX, to become a registered nurse.  Wisti must attend to multiple tasks in addition to taking care of students.

 “You [think] that we sit in this office and kind of twiddle our thumbs, but there’s always something to do,” Wisti said. “There’s the vision and hearing screening that we have to do, and all new students have to go through that, so the entire school year we’re working on that.”

The job also comes with its fair share of challenges. While nurses in hospitals have the liberty of collaborating with other medical professionals for help and in the case of emergencies, most school nurses do not have partners at their workplace. However, Wisti appreciates the help from office staff members and school security in case of emergencies. “If I do have an emergency and I get on the radio and say ‘I’m calling 911,’ I have admin in the building, I have security, and they’re all here to help.”

Due to the pandemic, school nurses are taking extra measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by sending students home, checking vaccinations, and if possible, providing testing. “When we had to do contact tracing, we did find that a lot of extra hours were being put in because of the number of kids that we had to check, go through all their immunizations, make sure that they all had vaccinations, or had to quarantine,” Wisti said. 

In prior years, any students that exhibited cold symptoms were advised to rest for 20 minutes and then return to class; however, COVID-19 has changed the standard procedures in order to minimize the spread. “Pretty much any student that comes in and tells me that they have any kind of cold symptoms, I have to send them home, because they could potentially be COVID symptoms,” Wisti said.

Pascual thanks Wisti for all her help and hard work throughout the year. “Thank you for doing what you do,” Pascual said. “You’re awesome and keep it up!”