FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – Heidi Toth, Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC) school nurse and the district nurse for the Freehold Township schools, was recently chosen as the 2008 New Jersey State School Nurse of the Year. Her name was submitted to the state association by the executive board of the Monmouth County School Nurses Association after winning the Monmouth County award this past May. Toth will be recognized for receiving the state award on March 8, 2008.
“It is a great honor to receive the New Jersey State School Nurse of the Year award. All of our school nurses do an exemplary job on a daily basis and I am proud to represent them,” Toth said in a press release provided by the Freehold Township School District.
With her win on the state level, Toth will now move on to the National Association of School Nurses annual competition.
“We are so proud of Heidi and her accomplishments,” Assistant Superintendent Sandra Brower said. “To be recognized at the highest level in the state is a career summit. There will be much in store for Heidi as she represents the nurses of our state.”
In winning the state award, Toth met several criteria for selection including standards of school nursing practice, quality of practice, continuing education, collegiality, collaboration, ethics, leadership, and research and resource utilization. She also gathered seven letters of recommendation from supervisors, colleagues and parents.
As the school nurse at the ECLC and the district’s lead nurse, she not only cares for the district’s preschoolers, but also coordinates health services, develops and evaluates policies and procedures, and collaborates with parents, staff, administrators and outside agencies.
In addition to her work in the Freehold Township Cchool District, Toth provides intensive care nursing for children and adults in the Post-Anesthesia and Post Partum/Nursery Unit at Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank. She started in Freehold Township as the Eisenhower Middle School nurse nine years ago and became active in several school groups including Peer Leaders.
Toth has also been an adjunct professor at Monmouth University, West Long Branch, a high school nurse and a published author for a chapter on Lyme disease in “Individualized Health Care Plans for the School Nurse.” She holds an MS in Health Sciences and an MSN in Nursing.