When long-time school nurse retired last semester, students who were expecting to see a new face in the nurses office may have been surprised.
The familiar face in that office is Melanie Reed who isn’t new to the school, or the district.
“Originally I started out at the high school, and I taught health science for three years, and then I took the position of district nurse at the middle school campus,” Nurse Reed said. “I’m still district nurse, but I just changed to the high school campus after Mrs. Riles retired,”
Nurses have so many responsibilities, ensuring that students and staff feel safe in their care.
“They care for the students, if there’s sickness or necessary medication, some of our more severe and profound students that maybe have tube feedings, they take care of any kind of medical assistance needs for our students,” Principal Natalie Reeves said. “As a district RN a daily task would be to check immunization records, making sure all those are up to date, helping students if something were to arise, if an accident would take place, that would need to be overseen.”
Becoming a RN is not simple. An RN or a registered nurse has to graduate from a nursing school or program before they can practice nursing.
Mrs. Reed got her associate’s nursing degree at SAU in Magnolia, and then her bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas in Arlington.
While Mrs. Reed has professional responsibilities, Mrs. Reed said she also desires to form friendly relationships with students.
“My expectations are just to be supportive, to try to teach students what’s normal, what’s not normal, just to try to help them manage any daily medical problems whatever that may be for them,” Mrs. Reed said, “I also want to be a support role — my job is also for counseling, support, and help in any form that they may need it.”
Forming new relationships with a new person can be tough — however, Mrs. Reeves said she discourages students from spending too much time in the nurses’ office.
“I do know that students build relationships with different people, and so if they had a closer relationship with Mrs. Riles, that may not just transpire over to our new nurse,” Mrs. Reeves said. “So I do think that there probably will be less hanging out in the nurse’s office.”
Mid year retirements always bring new changes and adjustments, but Mrs. Reed said she is ready to face those challenges and help students adjust.