Superhero, more like school nurse
School nurse, Deb Hammergren, in her at home office all set up for another days work as a Covid-19 triage nurse.
November 7, 2020
“The most difficult part of this job is hearing the heart breaking stories from families. In my new role, I work as a resource for these families that need guidance,” school nurse Deb Hammergren said. Hammergren is not just any nurse, she’s Stillwater School District’s first COVID-19 triage nurse.
Hammergren has temporarily switched positions from a regular school nurse to serve the entire district as a COVID-19 nurse. She has worked for the past 17 years as a healthcare specialist in the health office for Stillwater Schools, and when this position was offered she jumped at the opportunity. She now works with the schools to ensure the safety of all the staff and students.
“In my new role, I work as a resource nurse for families and staff that have questions or need guidance on what they should do if they have symptoms or have been exposed to COVID-19. I also do contact tracing to identify who may be a close contact to the Covid positive person, so we can isolate them to avoid further infection,” Hammergren said.
Meanwhile, schools have been taking many precautions to help prevent the virus from spreading. Not only did they hire a COVID-19 nurse, but they also have put in over months of planning time for this school year in order to keep students and staff safe. They shortened the days, allowed only 50 percent capacity, implemented safety measures such as cleaning, and a lot of other things as well.
Principal Robert Bach said COVID-19 has kept him busier this summer than any other summer in his 29-year career, and that more planning has been done for this school year than he has ever done before.
Hammergren works from home to focus on students, staff and their families. She contacts the families, and helps students understand what they need to do if they come in contact with the virus or someone who has it.
“Having a COVID-19 nurse will be beneficial because she will know more than a regular school nurse, so it’ll make the kids feel safer at school knowing that they can trust a nurse that knows a lot about the virus,” freshman Sofia LaBelle said.
Hammergren is a licensed RN, and has a LPN degree as well. She has attended multiple training sessions through the Minnesota Department of Health for COVID-19.
Hammergren said her training for COVID-19 is ongoing as everyone continues to learn more each day about this new virus and the best ways to prevent infections of others.
Although, this school year has been challenging, the district is doing all they can to manage all the COVID-19 related issues. But there are still normal school year jobs that need to be done, like keeping track of student’s medication.
“I am glad that we were able to hire a triage nurse. Given that we will see cases throughout the district, it will be important to have someone whose full-time job is to manage this task so that our other nurses and staff can do the other duties that still need to be done like administering to students who need them,” Bach said.
As the school year proceeds, families have been starting to get concerned about moving into winter, which has been predicted to have a spike in cases. The district has set up many alternative learning programs to help keep everyone safe to the best of their ability.
“If a spike in COVID-19 cases does occur this winter, our district is prepared with Learning ‘On The Dial’, which will allow us to move to a more restrictive model to protect students and staff should an outbreak occur. As always, families can choose to move to 100% Online Learning,” Hammergren said.
“In my opinion the school has been handling COVID-19 well…their method of quarantining everyone who came in contact is working,” LaBelle added.
