School Nurses, Trustee and State Safety Consultant Form School Health Team

School Nurses, Trustee and State Safety Consultant Form School Health Team

CHEYENNE – Three school nurses and a trustee from Laramie County School District One are being joined by a state school safety official at the Wyoming Department of Education for a fellowship program to improve student and community health.

The five are members of a team that successfully applied for the Johnson & Johnson School Health Leadership Program, which was designed by Rutgers University in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson.

The team includes nurses Janet Farmer, Mysha Mattimoe and Teresa Wright, Trustee Marguerite Herman and Bruce Hayes, who is the School Safety Consultant in the State Department of Education.

"We have a wide variety of experience and knowledge within our team," said Farmer, RN, MSN, NCSN, who is the school nurse at South High School. "With that, we hope to develop a process that will assist school nurses throughout the district and the state to provide the best possible health services to students."

Wright, RN, BSN, MPH, CHES is at Buffalo Ridge Elementary School, and Mattimoe, RN, BSN, is at Davis Elementary School.

Chris Bartholomew, RN, MS, NCSN, head nurse for LCSD1, encouraged the application. "I am excited to see the leadership potential developed in these school nurses, and I look forward to their contributions to the district and the community," Bartholomew said.

This nationally recognized fellowship program is designed to empower school nurses and their community and administrative partners to become leaders within their local educational and health services to improve student health practices. All education offered through the program is in partnership with the National Association for School Nurses (NASN). (Find more information at http://education.alcoholstudies.rutgers.edu/jjshlp.)

The team makes a two year commitment to the program and will attend a six-day residential institute in New Brunswick, N.J., in July. The institute will provide an opportunity to develop their leadership and project management skills as well as develop an enduring Change Plan that will provide a framework and action plan for engaging the community in sustainable change.