Among the many changes at schools during the coronavirus pandemic, perhaps no one’s role has changed as much as the school nurse. Now in her third year at CESJDS, Nurse Heather Greenblum’s daily focus has shifted to help face the challenges of the current health crisis.

“[COVID-19] made my job more difficult,” Greenblum said. “I used to make everyone’s day better and I feel like students were able to feel good that I fixed the problem. Now I do a lot more policy-making. It’s a lot more administrative work this year and a lot less working with the kids one-on-one time.” 

Greenblum stresses the importance of taking safety precautions to keep the greater community safe. She writes frequent emails to the community with reminders about safety precautions. 

“It is extremely important to wear a mask and not to have much close contact with anyone. You never know who or where the person has been or even their parents,” Greenblum said. “Always wear a mask and do not let your guard down. Let’s pray that this will be over soon and hopefully by the summer we’ll be back to normal.”

Greenblum always had a passion for working with children and medicine and that led her to want to become a nurse.

“When I was in high school, I thought of what professions I would enjoy that work with children,” Greenblum said. “I like the medical aspects of nursing and I like helping people and it feels really good to help children and families.”

When a position opened up at JDS, Greenblum was excited to take it. She used to work part-time while taking care of her three kids: freshman Dalia, seventh-grader Maya and fourth-grader Tova. Now that Greenblum is on the same schedule as her kids, it is easier for her to plan for travel and daily routines like pick-up and drop-off.

“It’s really nice to be in such a large community,” Greenblum said. “When people look at me for advice, it’s very exciting each day to help the students. I love talking with the kids. It’s an awesome age group and school.”

Aside from her nursing duties at school, Greenblum loves to travel and spend time with her kids and her dog. Although she cannot travel during the pandemic, she is able to spend more time doing her hobbies.

“The hobby [of] exercising is definitely something I do think it’s good for my mental health,” Greenblum said. “I love being outside. I love walking so in the springtime when I had a little less to do, I was walking many miles a day, a couple times a day just to kind of get out of it and to get my heart rate going.”