GRANTHAM — Superintendent Sydney Leggett is proud to announce that the New Hampshire School Nurses’ Association has named Grantham Village School Nurse Karen Eylander as the New Hampshire School Nurse of the Year.
Eylander joined the Grantham Village School community in 2011, having previously worked as a nurse in the Level 1 Trauma Emergency Department at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
“Karen brought with her a calm emergency response and a wealth of experience and knowledge,” GVS administrators wrote in Eylander’s nomination. “The level of care that she was trained to perform, and which she has shown us time and time again, is remarkable.”
In addition to being a highly-skilled medical professional, Eylander is also a dedicated and extremely compassionate member of the GVS community who has woven education into every aspect of her service.
Eylander starts each day at GVS in communication with parents, responding to emails and voicemail messages to navigate daily illnesses, to give advice on whether children should stay home or come to school, and to support families.
Eylander stands at the school’s front door at 8:25 a.m. each school day, greeting students with a friendly hello. At a surprise school assembly on Tuesday afternoon where Eylander was informed of the honor, grateful colleagues gave her a crown and cape to wear, and a scepter custom made to resemble a giant nasal swab.
Eylander administers medications and other necessary medical procedures for individual students, communicates with staff about extended absences so learning materials can be distributed to students, and administers COVID-19 surveillance tests to the 211 students and staff who participate in the GVS pool testing program. She also wears personal protective equipment and conducts drive-through COVID-19 tests to symptomatic students and staff.
Eylander also uses every visit to the nurse’s office as an opportunity to encourage healthy habits among students and staff.
“If a child tells her that they don’t feel well, Karen doesn’t just ask about symptoms and take a temperature. She also takes the opportunity to talk about how germs spread and the importance of washing hands,” said Principal Kristen Reed. “At every possible opportunity, Karen stitches education into her medical duties as a nurse.”
Eylander’s work doesn’t end each day with the final school bell, though. She also orchestrates car rider pickup each afternoon, and then returns to the school building to fill out reports. On her way home each evening, she often delivers bags of school supplies to students who are under COVID-19 quarantine but whose parents are unable to get to school.
Eylander also participates in student meetings, and is a member of the Safe Return to School Committee, the Wellness Committee, the Emergency Response Committee, the Grantham Parent Teacher Group, and serves as a panelist in GVS family forums.
In her role on the Wellness Committee, Eylander has helped organize and implement challenges and activities for students and staff such as a food cook-off, a GVS fun run, and a glowstick snowshoe event for families.
Eylander also works to ensure that she is an invaluable resource to both students and staff who provides education to students, and safety and health training to staff. That training includes epi-pen use, education about bloodborne pathogens, as well as First Aid and CPR training and refresher courses for staff. When space allows, she opens up the training opportunities to the wider Grantham community.
She has also been a constant champion for proper handwashing, sanitizing, and use of masks and social distancing, while working to provide reliable updates on COVID-19 trends, and consistent and detailed emails and phone calls to staff and parents regarding quarantine and testing needs.
Eylander also volunteers with the Upper Valley Humane Society, extending her care to animals as well. She also continues to work part-time at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and worked at many of the hospital’s COVID-19 testing locations since the beginning of the pandemic.
“The usual cuts and scrapes, screenings, fevers, and vomiting that she dealt with on a daily basis continued even as Karen added several other layers to daily life amid the COVID-19 pandemic: fever screenings, Department of Health and Human Services reports, COVID testing, and talking to every family’s healthcare provider at one point or another,” said Superintendent Leggett. “Through all this, she also took part in our weekly open parent/guardian check-in nights every Thursday night, where anyone from the community could join our team of administrators and our school nurse to ask questions and provide input. This is all above and beyond the usual call of duty.”
To learn more about the New Hampshire School Nurses’ Association or about past New Hampshire School Nurses of the Year, click here.
