Wendy Woods

What does your position entail?

I spend my day just visiting with students, helping them when they have medical concerns and treating them as appropriately as I can within my scope of practice. Then sometimes, my day just involves sitting down and just talking with students when they need a little break from school. 

What does a day in your life look like? 

My daily life at school is very busy. I have students in and out all day, I have a lot of emails I need to answer. I spend a lot of my day between students, taking phone calls from teachers and parents and then making sure I have all my documentation entered in.

What inspired you to go into this field? 

So I really wanted to be a teacher at first, but my mom talked me out of it. She said, “You know what, why don’t you go into nursing? You might like that.” I started taking nursing courses at the community college and really, I just absolutely loved it. I was able to still get my love for teaching. I’m into the job because as a nurse, you do a lot of education and a lot of health promotion.

What makes Northwest stand out from other schools?

This is the first school that I have ever worked at. I do have friends that are school nurses, and one of them does work at another high school in the district. But really, I just like the team that I work with. You guys have an amazing administration team. Your teachers are awesome. And every student I have met is really cool and awesome.

The highlight of the year so far? 

Learning new things. I love to learn and I have learned a lot about nursing in a school setting.

What are you most looking forward to this year? 

Getting to know the students. That was really what I like about being a school nurse. I knew I wanted to do high school or middle school. I’ve loved so far getting to know the students that I’ve met and letting them know that I’m here to help them and I want to keep doing that.

What are your goals for the year? 

You guys have not really had a regular nurse. So I want to try and get everything put back into shape and get things back at a baseline. It might take me a little while, but we’re going to hopefully get there. Make sure that the kids know that they can come to me and let me know if they have issues, problems or just need to talk.

How can students contact you? 

The nurse E-pass is probably the best way to contact me. I have some students that email me, and that is completely fine. I don’t mind popping in if it’s brief during passing periods, because I don’t want kids to miss a lot of class. 

What is one thing you would say to the NW student body? 

I would say mental health is a very high priority on my list of being a healthy person. Yes, everything else goes along with being a healthy person eating well, exercising and taking care of your body. But, all of that stuff also falls into your mental health and making sure that you are happy and you know what your goals are in life, even if it’s not a traditional goal, and just know that people care about you.