Cathy Fernandez honored by New Jersey State School Nurse Association
By: Kip Berman
HIGHTSTOWN Cathy Fernandez, the school nurse at the Perry L. Drew Elementary School, has been named School Nurse of the Year by the New Jersey State School Nurse Association.
She was honored Monday night by the East Windsor Regional School District Board of Education.
Ms. Fernandez, a resident of Monroe who was also named Mercer County’s School Nurse of the Year in 2004, said Tuesday she was "surprised" and "very touched" by the honor especially because it comes from her peers.
A lot has changed since she first joined the Drew School staff in 1981. At that time there were approximately 920 students, as opposed to today’s 680. Ms. Fernandez said at that time, her primary challenges were dealing with lice, first aid and asthma.
Though she founded the Drew School’s Asthma Club which helps its approximately 85 members learn about the causes of asthma and how to manage their condition and helped develop a diabetes-control program and assisted speech therapists on child research on ear infections, Ms. Fernandez says her greatest accomplishment has been something far more simple: teaching children "lifetime habits of hygiene and self-sufficiency."
"Look at what we now know about the flu," she said. "Basics such as washing hands and covering your mouth when you cough" can go a long way to preventing the transmission of disease.
And though routine first aid still occupies much of her time, she’s noticed that the challenges she faces today have changed.
"Today, there are many more children with major medical conditions, such as diabetes, asthma and food allergies," she said.
She noted that the school keeps records of all students with known food allergies and does all it can to prevent allergic reactions. "For children with known allergies, we ask parents to supply EpiPen (epinephrine an antidote to severe drug, food or insect allergy) for the individual child. But we also keep a stock of Benadryl and EpiPen on hand."
Looking to the future, Ms. Fernandez sees instilling good exercise and dietary habits as her chief challenge. And she says it’s not just important for students.
"We need to really focus on the nutritional and fitness status of everyone," she said.
Speculating that the children of today may routinely live to be 100, she stressed the need to maintain a focus on healthy lifestyles that will enable those future seniors to remain self-sufficient as long as possible.

