Gail Straney has been a nurse at Homewood’s Willow School for 19 years. She knows how to treat students who come to her with a variety of ailments and pre-existing conditions.
Despite all that hands-on knowledge, Straney decided to get a national certification for school nurses. It’s not a job requirement, just something Straney wanted to accomplish in her long career – 22 years as a hospital nurse and another 19 years at Willow.
She had no problem meeting the 1,000 hours of clinical practice. Her time at Willow counted toward that requirement. What was difficult was going back and studying for the exam. Straney, who has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Purdue University and had earned her school nurse certificate from National Louis University in 2002, needed to hit the books once more.
When the COVID-19 virus shut down District 153 schools, Straney used the time for some refresher courses before she sat for the exam last fall. Her topics touched on immunizations, hearing/vision screening, special education needs – basic school topics nurses should know. There were no coronavirus questions.
More nerve-wracking for Straney was the way the test was administered. Due to COVID-19, candidates couldn’t come together to sit for the exam, so Straney locked herself into a room at her home and was monitored by a proctor. She had to show him that she had nothing in her pockets, had to walk around the room to show she had no additional materials, etc.
At one point during the four-hour exam, it was getting dark and Straney wanted to turn on the room light. She had to ask permission of the proctor and show via computer that she was walking to the light switch, show she was turning it on, and then returning to her desk.
“It was the most stressful experience,” Straney said. “If the dog barked, or my husband knocked on the door, I would have been disqualified!”
Straney admits she was nervous about the whole experience and didn’t tell her co-workers that she was studying for the exam. She waited 10 weeks to find out she’d passed, becoming the first District 153 nurse to earn national certification.
She was recognized at a school board meeting for her accomplishment.
In June 2022, Straney will retire.
“I think 42 years as a nurse is enough,” she said. Still, it’s a profession she has loved.