By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



In the space of a half-hour last Friday, Amanda McCrary took care of a sore toe, three tummy-aches, a bumped head, a bumped eye, itchy skin, a bloody nose, and giving daily medications to three or four children.

It was all in a day’s work for “Nurse Amanda” McCrary, school nurse at Bryan Elementary.

She said her day is always that busy, but she loves it.

Her good attitude and competency with all emergencies large and small are part of the reason that McCrary was recently named the Alabama Association of School Nurses School 2009 RN Nurse of the Year.

In addition, Lindsey McGinnis, nurse at Chalkville Elementary School, won 2009 LPN School Nurse of the Year.

Karen Orton, coordinator of school nurses for the Jefferson County School System, said it is rare for nurses from the same school system to win both awards in the same year.

“They’re just incredible nurses. They have big schools and incredibly busy health rooms,” Orton said.

During the month of April, 563 students stopped by McCrary’s health room. She gave 800 doses of medication, did 125 scoliosis screenings, 180 parent contacts, referred 28 students to a doctor or emergency room, and did 79 checks for head lice.

“She is just the quintessential school nurse,” said Orton. “I think Amanda was chosen because of her dedication to the kids, her conscientiousness about her paperwork and the way she maintains her health room.”

“She is missed when she is not here,” said Dr. Sakema Porterfield, Bryan Elementary assistant principal, who nominated McCrary for the award.

“We could not do without her,” Bryan Elementary principal Debra Campbell said. “The students love her. She takes care of them like she’s their mother.”

According to McCrary, being a mother is a benefit to being a school nurse.

“If you’re a mom, you can do this job,” said McCrary. She is accustomed to handling childhood emergencies with her own children, Taylor, 11, and Reid, 5, who attend Gardendale Elementary School.

McCrary received her degree in nursing from Wallace State Community College in 2001.

She worked at Children’s Hospital for a year and a half, and then at Shades Crest Pediatrics for two years before going to Bryan in 2004.

McCrary knew all along that she wanted to work with children.

“Kids are just so much more resilient and they’re troopers, anything from cancer to a broken toenail,” she said.

According to Campbell, McCrary “takes a lot of pressure off of us.”

That, said McCrary, is because “I tend to be in charge of everything not directly related to education,” including “wardrobe malfunctions” like broken sandals, earrings falling out, milk spilled on shirts, and buttons coming off.

“I do things I would have never in a million years thought I would have been doing,” McCrary said. “People think all we do is give Ritalin and put on Band-aids.”

McCrary said her favorite part of her job is the students.

“It’s just the kids. Just the stories,” she said. “Even a paper cut has a story behind it. There are reasons behind everything.”

McCrary also likes the hours, including having summers off, and building relationships with the students and their parents.

Her least favorite part of the job is having no backup. McCrary said she formerly had a part-time health room worker whose position was eliminated because of budget cuts.

“It’s really hard for me to be off work, even if it’s planned,” she said. “The office workers have to do my job in addition to theirs when I’m off.”

McCrary is scheduled to attend an Alabama Association of School Nurses conference in Montgomery in June to accept her award.

She and her husband of 11 years, Matt McCrary, live in Gardendale with their children. They have been married 11 years.