By Jack Barnes

Over the last almost-three years, during the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone saw a significant change to normal life activity. In the case of education, all schools had to make changes in order to keep students on track, with a solid understanding of all material. One aspect of keeping schools open during the pandemic has been student health. My mom, Jana Barnes, the Middle and Upper School nurse at Collegiate, witnessed many changes and had to adapt with her co-workers very quickly to our new normal.

Barnes attended the Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing and graduated in 1994. She worked in adult critical care for 11 years after graduating from nursing school. When offered an opportunity to apply for the Middle and Upper School nurse position, after being a substitute for three years, she took it. She began working full time at the school seven years ago. She said her favorite part of working at the school is “getting to interact with students, faculty and staff, or administration and converse with everyone on a daily basis.”

Her fellow nurse Christy Mayr graduated from UVA Nursing School in 1992 and then attended Georgia State for her masters degree in nursing. Mayr graduated in 1997 and became a certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. Similarly to my mom, this is Nurse Mayr’s seventh year at Collegiate, either as a substitute or part time. She said she “loves her coworkers and being a part of the Collegiate community.”

Nurses Barnes (left) and Mayr at their McFall location in 2021. Photo courtesy of Collegiate School.

At the start of the 2020-2021 school year, the Middle and Upper School Nurses’ office was relocated to the back of the cafeteria. The room was not ideal, but with the new changes in the world, they made it work. Both my mother and Nurse Mayr agreed that “working during COVID-19 changed how everyone worked with medicine” and that the policies they once had to follow became much stricter. Both nurses also mentioned the increase in communication that they experienced. They both said there was an enormous increase in meetings, phone calls, and Zooms between administration and other faculty and staff. This increase in communication meant more involvement with programs around the school. Both Nurse Barnes and Nurse Mayr said that “we had to be frequently communicating with the athletic trainers and coaches for sports. It was really interesting, because we got to help be a part of the athletic community.” 

A part of a daily routine that they missed the most during that first pandemic school year was the connection with students. Students visiting the clinic had become less common, and when in the clinic, they had to undergo multiple exams, making sure that the student had not come in with even one symptom of COVID-19. The multiple examinations were a direct result of the significant uptick in phone calls. Both nurses mentioned how these calls became a daily habit and took time outside of school, in the early morning hours, and even late at night. The contact tracing piece of COVID-19 meant phone calls to families, faculty and staff, explaining current guidelines and providing reassurance on a regular basis.

Barnes in the Nurses Office. Photo courtesy of Collegiate School.

Today, the nurses have a newly renovated office space between the Middle and Upper Schools, with room to have sick patients on one side and healthy patients on the other. The newly renovated office also offers an island desk in the middle, where they still constantly take phone calls, communicating with teachers, administration, the Virginia Department of Health, and parents. They both mentioned that, in the last year, “it was really nice to go maskless. The policies we had to follow became a little less strict, and everything felt more normal.” 

However, with the return to normality, the nursing office has begun to see an increase in the number of non-COVID-19 illnesses. While getting sick at school may not be ideal, they enjoy students coming to the clinic, whether the student needs to go home or just needs a Band-Aid. All of the nurses on the campus agree that “seeing the kids is the best part of the day” and “being able to converse with them again, not through masks, makes everything feel much more human again.” 

It was because of their hard work and other administrators and faculty that we were able to even have in-person school. Most of the country was in remote learning in the 2020-2021 school year. It was all of their precautions, instructions, and prep that helped us have in-person learning. For that, we are very grateful.