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LEADING & SERVING WITH COMPASSION
Special Education Programs nurse Pamela Wampler recognized for mentoring peers and building strong bonds with students
On a recent morning, the duties of an itinerant nurse in the San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE) Special Education Programs took Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) Pam Wampler to four different school sites, from Manteca to Mountain House and back again.
At one stop, she taught medical procedures to staff members at the school.
On another, she trained staff to make sure they were up to speed on changes to student care plans.
And on another stop that became immediately necessary, she checked on a student who fell on the playground. (The student was OK.) All of this was before noon.
In the afternoon, she returned to McFall School to tube feed a student and took care of business in her office. At the same time, as she completed her afternoon paperwork, she also trained a new LVN in her first month on the job between talking with credentialed school nurses who walked in with case files holding more changes in care plans for students.
Healthcare staff also stopped by Wampler’s desk to sign a pair of brightly colored cards she kept for her colleagues with upcoming birthdays. Managing cards and planning birthday celebrations for her colleagues is one of the additional tasks Wampler volunteers to take on. It was pretty much a typical day. In her two decades with the SJCOE, she has cemented her place at the center of both the operations and the heart of the department within the organization that cares for the medical needs of students across San Joaquin County in SJCOE Special Education Programs.
Pamela Wampler, Licensed Vocati on a l Nurse
She was also recently named the 2021 State Classified School Employee of the Year in her category, which just confirmed what nurses, health aides, instructional staff, support teams, families, and students in San Joaquin County have already known for years:
Nurse Pam is the best.
“She deserves the recognition for all the little things that she does that nobody knows about, but yet makes everyone feel special and makes our department run smoothly,” said Donna Beckman, director of Special Education Programs nursing division. “I am so proud to be her friend and to be her supervisor and to have the whole world know what a wonderful nurse she is.”
Wampler builds strong bonds with students and families and is a mentor to nurses and health aides joining the department. She does more than help them understand the organizational and technical skills of the job. “More importantly, she mentors them in compassion and understanding for the unique needs of each individual in our student population ... Pam is the ‘mother’ to staff and students alike,” Beckman said.
When Wampler first joined the Special Education Programs team 20 years ago, it was a career change for her. She had been working as a pediatric nurse until she started thinking about looking for something new around the age of 40. She picked up a newspaper and saw the position at the SJCOE advertised.
She took the leap.
“It was my chance at 40, and some people thought I might not enjoy it,” she said. “And you know, now I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.”
Changing to a job in special education was a return to a path Wampler started as a child.
She had the opportunity to work with children with special needs at a time when they were less visible, both at school and in the community at large.
It started with her uncle. A former police officer who was paralyzed in a skiing accident, he went on to become a teacher and a principal as well as the director of a camp for children with disabilities. When she was about 13 years old, she would spend time working at that camp. “So, I started getting a heart for that.” She had other opportunities to work with children with physical disabilities or autism as an older teen, too.
Wampler believes that being an LVN for SJCOE Special Education Programs is more than just being knowledgeable about medical procedures. She says it also includes communicating with students to bond with them and help them feel comfortable. “Nursing is more than just handling their medical needs. It is also handling their other needs outside our scope, like participating with them in a circle, or engaging when they are doing another activity, getting them more comfortable to be around us. Saying ‘hi’ to them and making them smile when they might not be able to communicate and going that extra mile to get a smile out of them,” she said.
It’s one of the reasons teachers and students enjoy working with Nurse Pam.
“It feels great to have Pam in my classroom,” said Jacque Chandler, a teacher at McFall
School. “When Pam walks in, she always says
‘hi’ to everybody. The kids all know her. They know that she’s there to help. They know that she’s a fun person. They’ll wave to her. And it’s just always a great atmosphere when Pam’s in there because she’s just so cheery and full of love and always wanting to just be positive.”
In the program, sometimes students require daily procedures and assistance, such as being fed through a gastrostomy tube or “G-tube.”
Photos: Licensed Vocational Nurse Pamela Wampler working with a student (top) and preparing a “G-tube” (bottom).
Chandler said that Wampler is able to take care of these daily routines in a way that doesn’t take the students away from what they are doing in the classroom. Her attitude, her expertise, and the trust the students have in her make that possible.
“She’s able to pop in and be in the background, do what she needs to do,” Chandler said. “And the kids are still in the environment doing the activity that they were doing.”
Students can be in Special Education from birth through age 22. Each year, there is a graduation ceremony celebrating all the students who aged out during the year.
It is important to Wampler to be among the families and staff at those ceremonies, she said. The ceremonies are a time to recognize the teachers and other staff who have helped students become more independent or have a time in school that was filled with joy, she said. It is also a time to celebrate alongside students and families that she has known for many years.
“I love seeing the progress that they make from the time they are in preschool. Whether it be a little bit or a lot, they have come a long way from when they started in our program.”
STATE EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR
Pamela Wampler named 2021 California Classified Employee of the Year in the Health and Student Services category
Each year, the San Joaquin County Office of Education celebrates education by naming San Joaquin County Teacher of the Year and Classified Employee of the Year awards. In 2021, Pam Wampler was the county employee of the year in the Health and Student Services category. She was among the eight classified employees, and one teacher submitted to the California Department of Education to be considered for statewide recognition. In May, she was named the 2021 California Classified School Employee of the Year in her category.
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond’s news release stated, “Although based at a preschool site, Pam serves all students in the Special Education Department, ages birth to twenty-two. When students started returning to hybrid in-person instruction in September, Pam assisted school nurses with contact tracing by contacting parents, educating them regarding public health quarantine guidance, and following up. Pam also helped facilitate training around PPE and COVID with Special Education staff. She administered immunizations at the County Office of Education’s clinic, which vaccinated more than 13,000 education employees in San Joaquin County. She willingly worked overtime to help the team accomplish this great service to the community.”
SPECIAL EDUCATION NURSING
Nursing services an integral part of Special Education Programs
Special Education Programs at the San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE) provide services to more than 1,000 students with special needs from birth to age 22 in 10 of the 14 school districts in San Joaquin County.
The services provided are vast, ranging from speech and language services for students in general education classrooms to services for students in special day classrooms receiving extensive support. Some students require medical services, too, which can include administering medication to feeding to clearing airways allowing students to breathe.
For some students, attending school would not be possible without these services.
“But our nursing team is there to help support our students so that they’re able to be present in the classroom, attend, and be available for learning,” said Brandie Brunni, assistant superintendent of Special Education/San Joaquin County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) at the SJCOE. “Having those nursing services is an integral part of their day.”
The nursing team that covers more than 100 classrooms includes four credentialed school nurses, six licensed vocational nurses (LVNs), and five health aides.
“The credentialed school nurses direct the care implemented by the LVNs and health aides,” said Donna Beckman, SJCOE Special Education Programs nursing director.
A typical day starts with the team arriving at their assigned schools. They keep student medical files up to date, then fan out across the county to do procedures, like feeding a student in the morning to administering an insulin shot before lunch. “It’s all choreographed for each member
of the team, and there’s give and take,” she said. There might be an emergency, like an injury or a seizure, that will require immediate attention. Even more duties have been added during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The law requires that students have an educational plan that allows them to be as independent as possible in the least restrictive environment. Implementing the medical piece is the role of the nursing team, but the nurses’ role goes well beyond just fulfilling legal requirements. “We adore all of our students,” Beckman said. The team is there with the families as well as the students through all the milestones, both good and bad, as they continue through the program, from birth through age 22.
“Our nursing staff obviously has a chance to bond over those many years with students and families. Occasionally we have a student pass away, and we consider it an honor to go to their funerals or memorial services. We feel that families need to know that we care,” she said. And the nurses are there for the celebrations, too. They join together with family members and other special education staff members who come together every year for the graduation ceremony for students who age out of the program. One of the ceremony’s highlights is a slideshow that the staff puts together with photos provided by family members. It’s set to music, and each student has one.
“It’s powerful,” she said. “There’s not a dry eye in the house.”
Donna Beckman, SJCOE Nursing Director
