ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
From a young age, Norma Sanchez knew she was going to be a nurse.
“My mom, when I was little, would tell me I was going to be a nurse or a teacher,” she said. “She’s been telling me that since I was 5. She was always telling me I was going to be a nurse or a teacher when I grew up.”
Now grown up, Sanchez not only works as a school nurse for USD 483, but she is also an adjunct instructor for the nursing program at Seward County Community College.
A 2009 graduate of the SCCC nursing program, Sanchez first went into long-term care, where she worked as a certified nurse’s aide and a medication aide.
Part of her work in long-term care included a nursing home before she started teaching classes to recruit CNAs, and she said leaders with SCCC saw her teaching potential and asked if she would come teach at the college.
Sanchez still teaches at SCCC, and she said soon after she began working there, an opening came up for a school nurse at USD 483. She said the job in particular offered a flexible schedule.
“That was hugely important for me,” she said.
Sanchez said being a school nurse is not what she envisioned when she began nursing, but it has turned into a passion for her.
“I love to serve our community, and I get to do that and get paid for it,” she said. “I’m super lucky and blessed to be where I’m at. I have lots of great colleagues at the school district, and I’ve gotten to see a lot of our students grow up and blossom, and now, we’ve got their kids. It’s truly an interesting, rewarding thing.”
Sanchez said though school nursing is quite different from clinical nursing, it is just as important, and with ever-growing health needs in today’s world, Sanchez said the work of school nurses has become more critical than ever.
“There have been more mental health needs as the years have gone on,” she said. “It’s a variety of things. We look to support students so they can be as healthy as they possibly can. If you’re not healthy mentally, physically or emotionally, you can’t learn. That’s where I’m at now. I plan to continue it until I can’t.”
Another aspect Sanchez likes about her job as a school nurse is having new experiences with each day on the job.
“It’s never the same,” she said. “It’s different for me because I have preschool through seniors, and you cannot compare the two. You can’t compare a preschooler to a senior.”
Sanchez said she takes a different approach with each age range.
“What I like the most about working with kids is they want to please you when they’re younger, and they want to be more adult like and responsible when they’re older,” she said. “I like both ends of that.”
Still, Sanchez wants to help all students no matter what age, but she has found some students prefer more independence.
“As they get older, I tend to tell them, ‘Here’s the stuff. Take care of it,’” she said. “It’s awesome to see kids from those different angles from ‘I need a lot of help’ to ‘I’m ready to do it on my own.’”
Despite the small population of USD 483, Sanchez said she sees a constant stream of students through her office during the day.
“It’s a never ending revolving door of needs, whether they don’t feel good or they have an injury or they’re having a bad day or they just need some products or I need to make a plan for their health here at school,” she said. “Whatever the case me be, the students are in and out.”
Sanchez likewise often sees school staff in her office, and she said these cases generally require more time than those of students.
“They’re more intricate,” she said. “They need to be the healthiest they can be so they can teach students.”
Sanchez also enjoys having her fellow employees trust her for help with health conditions.
“Those typically adult things take a little more time, and I’m okay with that,” she said. “That’s what I signed up to do. I signed up to serve them as well as our students.”
Sanchez said she feels school nurses are an absolute essential.
“When you have a kids who has diabetes or you have a major injury or you have a major medical emergency, it’s critical there’s someone who’s going to confidently deal with the situation,” she said. “With a lot of teachers, it’s not their area of expertise, and it’s not that they’re not willing to help, but that’s not where their confidence is.”
In her role as a nurse, Sanchez said she tries to take the pressure off teachers.
“I always tell them, ‘Let me deal with this. Let me deal with the parents. Let me deal with those issues. You deal with teaching,’” she said.
Also, Sanchez feels her list of duties are not tied down to one thing, but several things.
“I fill in wherever I need to,” she said. “You have to be able to be flexible and help each other out when it comes to a school setting. We’ve all heard it takes a village to raise a child. It’s very true. There’s a reason why they say that, and I’m just a villager.”
Outside of nursing, Sanchez works with other projects at USD 483, including the district’s Ignite program.
“It’s something I started through a grant from USDA and K-State,” she said. “We’ve sustained that program at the junior high since we started it. It’s a health and wellness program, and it teaches kids being healthy doesn’t have to be boring.”
As part of the Ignite program, Sanchez said students are also taught being healthy does not have to be a turnoff, nor does it require running a mile every day.
“We’ve really emphasized being healthy can be a lot of fun,” she said. “It’s really important to teach kids there are healthier ways to eat, and there’ are healthier ways to exercise that are fun. It doesn’t have to be a drag.”
Ignite too teaches students how to put together recipes and games to help get the heart rate going.
“Competitiveness is a big deal, and we teach kids that we can be competitive and we can still lose,” Sanchez said. “That’s okay because the end result is you got a good workout.”
Sanchez said she has seen Ignite go through many changes, but it continues to be a district initiative.
“Even if we can give a little of that to our kids and even if they take away a little of that, it’s definitely beneficial for the rest of their lives,” she said.
Other activities Sanchez is involved in include the district’s summer meals and Angel Tree programs, and she said she initially signed on with the district to coach volleyball.
“I did that for a few years, and I’ve been a junior class sponsor in the past,” she said. “I’ve helped with chaperoning of field trips and events. I help put on a program called Mustang Mentors, where we have some grade school kids come and have a snack and a fun lesson by some of the high schoolers and junior high kids.”
Sanchez said Mustang Mentors provides a fun interaction for grade school kids with older students. She said in regards to her involvement with school projects, she will help regardless of whether they are tied to nursing or not.
“I’ve done different projects in the past where I’ve been lending a hand,” she said. “Some of it is connected, and some of it is wild and rogue. It has nothing to do with the nurse part of me. I do a lot of eclectic things that are on all ranges of help.”
Sanchez said her willingness to get involved with the district comes from her experience growing up as an at-risk kid.
“I was somebody who had food insecurities,” she said. “I was somebody who came from a broken home. I was somebody who needed help.”
Looking back, Sanchez said she now sees the huge impact school made on her life.
“They made an actual change,” she said. “They made an actual difference in my life, and I feel it’s one of those pay it forward type of things. I don’t think a person can do this type of work passionately if they haven’t had those types of things within their own lives. You can do it, but not in the same manner or compassion I might have for it.”
Sanchez said she uses her experience to help those who deal with mental health issues.
“I can say I know how this feels because I’ve dealt with this in my own family,” she said. “There’s a lot of things I’ve been able to help others through because I’ve gone through them myself. It doesn’t make you a better nurse. It helps you have a better understanding as a school nurse.”
Sanchez said her legacy will be tied largely to family.
“Family is huge to me,” she said. “I don’t care how broken or dysfunctional you think your family is. If you call your aunt your family, that’s your family, and I feel it’s crucial to have your family there for you. I feel family time’s important. What can we do as a family to get you together, get you active, get you out there, make good memories, have togetherness? Family is who you call family. Invite them over. We want them involved, and we want to see you guys doing great things together. That’s my biggest passion.”
Sanchez said she feels today’s society has gotten away from family time.
“It makes me really sad,” she said. “I try to put together lots of different programs where it brings families together. I like to try to help kids.”
Sanchez too has taught several CNA classes at Southwestern Heights High School, and she said she feels this is important because it allows students to have a flexible job in college and a feeling of helping with family finances.
As for what it takes to be a nurse, for Sanchez, at the top of the list would be composure.
“I feel when the pressure gets high, I maintain my composure even better,” she said. “My composure is much better in a critical situation. If you know me personally, you might have a different opinion of me than when we have a serious situation going on and I’m in work mode. I can really become stoic when I need to, and it’s part of maintaining the calm.”
Sanchez said maintaining composure is essential, especially in leadership roles, because those in other roles typically take their lead of the leader.
“If you freak out, everyone around you is going to freak out,” she said. “It’s like the stewardess on the airplane. If she’s freaking out, everyone’s going to go ballistic, and that’s what I’ve learned in the health care setting. Whether you work in a school, a clinic, a hospital or nursing home, you’ve got to maintain your composure. You’ve got to maintain that professionalism so people who look up to you know you’ve got it under control.”
Sanchez said she highly recommends those interested in nursing to do it.
“There’s a hundred different things you can do in nursing,” she said. “You can work at a clinic. You can work at a health department. You can work at a hospital. You can work on an airplane. National Beef hires nurses. Schools hire nurses. There are nursing positions everywhere you look. A big trend is in home care right now.”
Likewise, Sanchez said the nursing profession provides job security, great pay and great rewards.
“You constantly keep learning,” she said. “There’s never a time when you stop learning. It’s a continual learning process.”
