LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s around 9:45 a.m. at Newburg Middle School when Jessica Clarkson, the school nurse, is called to check on a student with a cough.
What You Need To Know
- JCPS added 100 nurses during the pandemic
- Jessica Clarkson is the school nurse at Newburg Middle School in Louisville
- Nurses have new responsibilities like COVID testing and contact tracing
Though he doesn’t have a fever, the cough is enough to send him home.
Clarkson takes him to the gym to wait for pickup in a quarantine area under the basketball hoop.
"Now we have to say, 'Oh, well you’re presenting with a cough. We have to call, and we have to send you home because there's a criteria,'" she said. "A fever and cough — those are big ones that we have to send home for."
Almost an hour later, there’s a call for another student sick.
Clarkson leaves a message for a parent and brings the student to the quarantine area.
When students returned to the classroom in April, more than a year after the pandemic began, some of Clarkson's routines remained the same, such as preparing regular medication for some students.
School nurses like Clarkson have taken on new responsibilities during the pandemic, from restocking caddies of wipes, gloves and sanitizers for every classroom, to COVID-19 testing and contact tracing.
"Now, instead of them being sent down here, they call me and I go to them and I escort them because at that point, I can monitor the symptoms and that way, we know whether we need to send them to isolation or it’s something I can deal with here," she said.
Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) added 100 nurses during the pandemic, according to Eva Stone, manager of district health.
"They’ve had to learn a new way of doing things, and they’ve really risen to the occasion, and they have just done an outstanding job making sure our kids are safe, our staff are safe, our families are taken care of," Stone said.
Clarkson sees fewer students these days because some haven't returned to the building, but she is working to make sure everyone feels comfortable, she said.
"I love nursing because I get to take care of people," Clarkson said. "It’s really that simple.”