Q&A with high school nurse, Ms. Robin Leone.

Hornish: What’s your name? 

Leone: Robin Leone

Hornish: And what’s your job at GRHS? 

Leone: I’m the high school nurse. 

Hornish: And so what does a high school nurse do? 

Leone: Take care of all the students, faculty, staff members, parents who may come in here and become ill. That’s my job, aside from taking care of immunizations, following up on sports physicals. There’s a lot of paperwork that’s involved in this job. People don’t realize that.

Hornish: When we talk about paperwork we’re talking about like medical paperwork or just paperwork?

Leone: So we collect sports physicals, as you know, a couple of times a year for all the seasons. We follow up on all the immunizations, we have to track the immunizations, we have to report them to the county. We get audited every year. Also in sports physicals, we follow up with the doctor. We make sure all the sports physicals are basically T’s are crossed I’s are dotted, signatures, any questions that are a little awry, we have to follow up with their doctors and the student and the parents. We don’t want anything to happen while they’re out on the field or on the basketball courts, and there’s other paperwork that’s involved, it’s daily stuff.

Hornish: And so did you work anywhere else before Glen Rock High School?

Leone: Yes, I was I started in Hackensack hospital, then went to Valley homecare work there for many years. I do work in a surgical center on the weekends and another private duty case as well as the From this Monday through Friday job.

Hornish: So working at Hackensack and Valley, what was your job there?

Leone: I was a staff nurse, cardiac unit in Hackensack. Valley I was a home care nurse, I roughly had about 45 to 50 patients a week that I saw. My surgical [job] is we see surgical patients on the weekends, maybe 50 a day, Saturday and Sunday, and then a private duty case.

Hornish: And so what college did you go to get your degree in nursing?

Leone: William Paterson for nursing, school certification was Felician. You do have to go to another school and get another two-year degree for school nursing. 

Hornish: And so with the school nursing what was the difference between that and regular nursing.

Leone: you have to learn all the laws related to school nursing, all the ins, and outs, all the laws that’s required to be a school nurse. That’s why they require nurses to have certifications, as well as teaching so we can teach Health. But we have gym teachers that do that here, in the elementary schools, those nurses do teach Health.

Hornish: And so laws wise, what are you allowed to do?

Leone: We have a nursing scope of practice and a school scope of practice, so we have to work within those guidelines. So you have to know it all.

Hornish: What drew you to nursing?

Leone: My mother passed from cancer, and it struck me. And I saw the nurses dealt with her, so it possessed me.

Hornish: What are the things that you like about being a school high school nurse as well as other jobs?

Leone: Of course the students. I mean, I have four children, my own and I can relate very well. I really like high school nursing. I do help Ms. Nerney with the middle school, she helps me with high school when we’re really swamped. But it’s really the students. They’re great. They’re really fun to work with.

Hornish: Where do you see yourself in the next ten years?

Leone: Glen Rock, literally, probably the next 10 years.