Gates County | Eastern AHEC
Martha Guttu, MSN, RN, BC, school nurse consultant, Northeast region
Martha Guttu never thought she would serve in a community health role. She graduated from UNC – Chapel Hill and was an intensive care nurse for five years. Her family moved to Edenton when her girls were young and she wanted a job where she could spend more time with her family. “The school nurse position in the county just happened to be open, I applied, and was hired!” she said. “I found I loved working with the students, implementing programs, and of course, the working hours.
“As more and more students with complex health needs began entering school I realized that more nurses were needed and the focus of health services needed to change from just working on the traditional problems of vision and first aid, to developing programs to help students with chronic health conditions such as asthma and diabetes. School nurses also needed to provide case management so students could learn to their fullest potential. I became a school nurse consultant in 1995, serving a 20-county area in northeast NC. I felt as a consultant I could make a bigger change in school health programs and thus in the lives of more students.”
When Guttu first became a consultant, one of the training programs needed was an orientation to the role and responsibilities of being a school nurse, Martha said. Eastern AHEC (EAHEC) already had a history of providing programs for school nurses so they worked together to meet some specific school nurse needs. “’School Nurses: Roles and Responsibilities – An Orientation for New School Nurses’ was the first program I worked collaboratively with EAHEC in developing,” she explained. “Helen Brinson, EAHEC nursing director, has been very supportive of our effort to develop programs for school nurses.
“We have also developed a Certification Review Course for school nurses and a School Nurse Physical Assessment Course in addition to the blended learning NC School Nurse Leadership Institute. There have also been other programs we have worked on with AHEC to provide to school nurses over the years – such as Documentation for School Nurses.”
One of the goals of the NC School Nurse Leadership Institute was to develop a program for experienced nurses, Guttu said, adding that there already existed an orientation workshop for new nurses but there wasn’t anything specifically designed for the experienced school nurse. “I pulled together a focus group of lead school nurses from across the state to discuss what topics would be of interest in the fall of 2004. I took that information to Helen Brinson and discussed developing an Institute for our school nurse leaders. We pulled together a planning committee and developed the Institute. We offered the first of three sessions in December 2005. Another goal of the Institute was to empower school nurse leaders to influence policies that affect the types of services provided to children, particularly in the area of screening, health promotion, emergency preparedness, and case management of children with chronic illness.
“Eastern AHEC has always supported programs for school nurses and been wonderful to work with when I have an idea on developing a program. Most recently, I have been involved in a collaborative project with East Carolina University, College of Nursing regarding case management of children with chronic illnesses. EAHEC is a partner with us to provide continuing education for nurses involved in the project. We have also seen the need to develop a workshop for school nurses on case management to expand across the state. We are currently collaborating to develop the workshop.
“I would not consider developing workshops without discussing the feasibility with Eastern AHEC. EAHEC has also worked very hard to provide our workshops as we need them and when we need them. I can’t thank them enough for their continued support of school nurse programs. I enjoy the relationship we have built over the years.”