Longtime School Nurse will be missed

    For nearly 29 years, students at Chase County Schools have found a familiar face in the School Nurse’s office.
    That will change in May when Angie Paisley closes out a career that likely has put her in contact with more students than any other staff member at the school.
    The School Nurse position has a wide range of responsibilities. During the hour interview alone, at least a dozen students stopped into her office, as well as staff members with a range of needs - a junior high student had a bloodied lip, another thought she had a fever, one student reported a headache and several were in to take their prescription meds under Paisley’s watch. She also visited with a middle school staff member about a class presentation on nutrition.
    But, Paisley’s job does not stop with the Monday through Friday office visits.
    She coordinates the school’s annual health checks for K-12 students, provides the random drug testing on bus drivers and conducts yearly staff training in CPR, the use of EpiPens, as well as responding to asthma/anaphylaxis attacks and seizures.
    All athletes must undergo concussion impact testing before playing. If an athlete is injured, Paisley oversees the post-injury evaluation. The student then must be cleared to participate in the sport again by a medical provider.
    The CCS Bloodmobile wouldn’t happen without oversight from the School Nurse. Starting with just one a year in 2007, the Bloodmobile now comes four times a year, she noted. Paisley works with a student blood drive team, and when those students are seniors, they will have a share in scholarship funds given by the Red Cross.
    She likes the interaction between students and donors that happens at each blood drive at the school, she said.
    She’s written several grants that have helped buy health-related items for the school.
    One included a grant that acquired a salad bar for K-6 students.
“Before that, only 7-12 students had a salad bar. This got the younger students their fruits and vegetables,” she noted.
    Other successful grants she wrote acquired a milk machine and two AEDs, or Automated External Defibrillators. Through the NE Department of Health, she also arranged to get air purifiers for all of the CCS classrooms and other areas like the library.
    She’s referred students with orthopedic concerns to Shriner’s Hospital and works closely with the Imperial Lions Club, which will provide eyeglasses for uninsured students based on her referrals.
    Paisley also coached junior high volleyball at the school for about 12 years.
    Her job keeps her busy at CCS, but the nursing experience she holds goes beyond the school. She teaches a CNA class through Mid-Plains Community College, and before the MPCC campus was established in Imperial, she taught the course at the Manor.
    As nursing shortages continue, she feels the cooperation between CCS and MPCC for the CNA classes is key.
    CCS students can take the online CNA class at school, she noted, then can schedule their clinicals at the college during the school day, where there is a life-like hospital room set up. She and daughter Whitney Burke teach the clinicals at MPCC, both as adjunct instructors.
    In the community, Paisley is chairman of the Senior Services Board, which oversees operations at Imperial Manor and Parkview/Heights. She’s been on the board about more than 10 years. She’s also an active Giving Circle member.
    Paisley graduated in 1982 with an RN diploma from Western Nebraska General Hospital in Scottsbluff, known today as Regional West Medical Center. The facility is now a branch of the UNMC nursing college.
    After graduating, she returned to her hometown of Oshkosh where she worked 10 years at Garden County Hospital, three of them as Director of Nursing.
    The Paisley family moved to Imperial in 1992. She initially worked three years at Chase County Community Hospital as a staff nurse and also gave chemotherapy treatments, as well as teaching prenatal classes.
    In fall 1995, she assumed the CCS position, replacing another longtime School Nurse, Phyllis Haberman.
    She believes 14 years in rural hospital nursing and triage experience were a big benefit as she transitioned as a School Nurse.
    “I couldn’t have done this job without that training,” she noted.
    As she looks forward to a different routine later this year, she was quick to answer what she will miss most.
    “I’ll miss the kids and the interaction with all of the age groups from K-12,” she said.
    “It’s been fun to watch them mature and grow up.”
    It’s also been a real joy, she added, to now have six of her seven grandchildren in the CCS building each day. She said even her oldest grandchild, Krayton, a sophomore, still stops in to say hi.
    One thing she won’t miss is the 2020 COVID effect on schools - the masks and all else that affected the day-to-day operations at CCS.
    As School Nurse then, she was required to send students home if a cough, headache, fever or sore throat was present, conditions she generally can handle in her office.
    “If they had any symptoms during COVID, they went home,” she said.
    That resulted in occasional backlash from some parents, she recalled. There were attacks on Facebook and calls to the school.
    “We were following the state mandates. Sending them home was out of our control,” she said.
    While Paisley doesn’t think the response to the virus will mirror 2020 if a similar situation occurs again, she said the COVID virus is here and always will be.
    She plans to continue teaching the CNA classes through Mid-Plains after she leaves CCS and “enjoy life.”
    “I’ll enjoy just going when and where I want and follow the grandkids,” she said.
    “I just want to enjoy life. It’s too precious to be hurrying around all the time,” she said.
    A few golf trips will also be on the schedule, she added.
    Her husband John will continue working after she retires as president of Adams Bank & Trust in Imperial. The couple has three grown children - son Jess in Omaha, son Garrett and wife Jacci, who is the 7-12 school counselor at CCS, in Imperial and daughter Whitney and husband Jason Burke of Imperial. All seven grandchildren are in Imperial.
    At the February meeting, school board members hired Whitney Burke to replace her mother as School Nurse this fall.