National Nurses Week: Stacie Davis: School nurse with many responsibilities

The definition of a nurse is a person trained to care for the sick.

A school nurse has additional responsibilities — advancing the wellbeing, academic success and lifelong achievement of students.

Stacie Davis has worked as the Chaffee (Missouri) Elementary School nurse for 10 years.

Davis said her role as a school nurse is to give emotional support to children who are needing someone to talk to whenever they are sad, just needing some TLC when they didn't feel good or they missed their mom or dad. It is emotional support for families who have had trouble with making ends meet and being there for families and giving them resources and a listening ear for all kinds of things.

Growing up, Davis said, her family knew she would go into some sort of health care due to the way she acted around residents in a nursing home when she was younger.

Stacie Davis checks a student's blood pressure. She is school nurse at Chaffee (Missouri) Elementary School.Alyssa Lunsford

Stacie Davis checks a student's blood pressure. She is school nurse at Chaffee (Missouri) Elementary School.Alyssa Lunsford

"My mom just noticed how good I was with the residents there. Actually, in seventh grade. I went to the Chaffee nursing home, and I would volunteer. I would just go out there and sit with the residents and listen to how their day was," Davis said. "I couldn't do any hands-on care because I was just a child and didn't have a nursing background, obviously, but I just listened to how their day was and just visited with them and tried to make sure they had a good day. I just always want people to feel loved and have a good day."

Starting ou,t Davis worked at The Chateau in Cape Girardeau while getting her nursing degree done. After eight years, she decided it was time for a change for her based on her having her own family.

When thinking about the change from elderly to the young there are no major differences other than age, she said.

"I think it's the same morals. Everybody just wants to be loved and understood and appreciated. And so I think with the nursing home and the school, they're both vulnerable populations who depend on someone to help them," Davis said.

She came upon her job at Chaffee by chance, getting told by an employee at the school there would be a vacancy the next year.

Stacie Davis, school nurse at Chaffee (Missouri) Elementary School, walks a student through an eye exam.Alyssa Lunsford

Stacie Davis, school nurse at Chaffee (Missouri) Elementary School, walks a student through an eye exam.Alyssa Lunsford

As a person, Davis said has experience with just about everything in the department and tries to make all the families and children at the school at ease when they talk to her.

Davis said there are many types of families in the school district — nuclear families, single mothers or fathers, grandparents who raise children, foster families and others. To families, she gives reassurance they are doing a good job and together they will get their children through school.

As a nurse she is in constant contact with many families for a variety of reasons. One of the reasons being that there are students who have diabetes.

"(Type 1 diabetes) requires a lot of care and support for their family because it's a 24/7 job for them. They come here, they get a little reprieve and breather and then the kids are right back home. The parents are worried about them." Davis said.

Davis said her job is not the most glamorous but it is rewarding. She has students visit for little scratches, head injuries, to learn about hygiene and more. She said she feels as if she is a mom away from home to many of the students and is a first stop to many who want to speak about sensitive subjects.

"I'm just really nurturing and caring and empathetic with people. And so I feel like people can see that in me. I even have had coworkers come down just for some little talking or counseling sessions or for their headaches or blood pressure checks. I feel people are just comfortable with me. I try to make them feel comfortable," she said. "My favorite moments are the ones I'm with through pre K through sixth grade, some kind of medical condition, and we have a really close bond."