2007.05.15: May 15, 2007: Headlines: COS - Colombia: Nursing: Awards: Albany Democrat-Herald: Colombia RPCV Carol Cochran named Oregon’s 2007 School Nurse of the Year
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2007.05.15: May 15, 2007: Headlines: COS - Colombia: Nursing: Awards: Albany Democrat-Herald: Colombia RPCV Carol Cochran named Oregon’s 2007 School Nurse of the Year
Colombia RPCV Carol Cochran named Oregon’s 2007 School Nurse of the Year
Cochran grew up in India, the daughter of missionaries. Her mother was a nurse, the only medical professional for miles around. “She just did everything, from birthing babies to pulling teeth to stitching up wounds,” Cochran said. “I watched her and that was all I ever wanted to be.” She went to nursing school at Seattle Pacific University, spent a year in Colombia in the Peace Corps, then a year as a public health nurse in Philadelphia, serving in a Pureto Rican ghetto. Life slowed somewhat when her then-husband moved the family to Oregon to go to school. She took a nursing job with Greater Albany Public Schools. “Working with kids has always drawn me. Again, as a student of life, who better to draw from than kids?” Cochran said.
Colombia RPCV Carol Cochran named Oregon’s 2007 School Nurse of the Year
School nurse humbled by honor
By Jennifer Moody
Albany Democrat-Herald
Caption: School nurse Carol Cochran of Albany demonstrates a “g-tube,” which she teaches educators how to use with students who need direct gastrointestinal feedings. Photo: Heather LeMay/Democrat-Herald
Carol Cochran of Albany has been named Oregon’s 2007 School Nurse of the Year
Just once, Carol Cochran would like a few lawmakers to follow her around on the job.
They’d soon find out what it’s really like to be a school nurse.
“I think they think about school nurses as boo-boos and Band-aids,” said Cochran, of Albany. “There is a lot of that, but sometimes when you see the boo-boos and the Band-aids, it’s just part of a bigger picture.”
A child’s health has everything to do with how he performs in school, she said, how he feels about himself, how he interacts with others, and, ultimately, the kind of adult he becomes.
“It’s all threaded together,” she said.
That bigger picture is what Cochran, 55, wants people to think about when they hear the Oregon School Nurses Association has named her Oregon’s 2007 School Nurse of the Year.
She received the honor during the OSNA’s twice-yearly conference, held May 3 and 4 in Wilsonville. Talking about the award is a good way, she said, to highlight the medical needs of Oregon’s students and the people who take care of them.
“I feel very honored, and, I will say, very humbled, because I am no means the best nurse, or the best school nurse,” she said.
Cochran is a school nurse consultant for the Willamette Education Service District. Based in Salem, she serves as an in-house nurse for two school districts — Woodburn and Sheridan — and as a nurse consultant for Central, Gervais and Mount Angel school districts.
All together, she travels to 26 schools.
When she’s in Woodburn or Sheridan, she does see the boo-boos, the tummy aches and the head-lice cases. They come in alongside the children with diabetes, with eating disorders, with depression so severe it leads to self-inflicted wounds.
The other districts she visits have no nurses, so Cochran instructs the rest of the staff — aides, special education teachers, regular classroom teachers — how to monitor catheters, clean tracheotomy openings, adjust gastrointestinal “g-tubes,” mix and inject glucagon, and even use rectal insertion tubes for diastat, an emergency medication for extreme seizures.
Cochran is the only nurse, and she can’t be there all the time. So, she said simply, “They have to learn.”
Cochran grew up in India, the daughter of missionaries. Her mother was a nurse, the only medical professional for miles around.
“She just did everything, from birthing babies to pulling teeth to stitching up wounds,” Cochran said. “I watched her and that was all I ever wanted to be.”
She went to nursing school at Seattle Pacific University, spent a year in Colombia in the Peace Corps, then a year as a public health nurse in Philadelphia, serving in a Pureto Rican ghetto.
Life slowed somewhat when her then-husband moved the family to Oregon to go to school. She took a nursing job with Greater Albany Public Schools.
“Working with kids has always drawn me. Again, as a student of life, who better to draw from than kids?” Cochran said.
That was in 1980. But two years later, she could see funding for nursing programs drying up. She moved to home hospice, becoming director of Evergreen Hospice and Home Care Network.
In 2000, she took the Willamette ESD job to get back to school nursing. Her caseloads continue to grow, partly because children whose disabilities used to keep them from going to school are now being accommodated, and partly because some issues, such as food allergies, are on the rise.
What doesn’t increase are the numbers of school nurses, or the awareness of why their jobs are so important, she said.
The National Association of School Nurses recommends a minimum of one nurse for every 750 students. Cochran’s students number in the thousands.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: May, 2007; Peace Corps Colombia; Directory of Colombia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Colombia RPCVs; Nursing; Awards; Oregon
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Story Source: Albany Democrat-Herald
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Colombia; Nursing; Awards
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