Donna Rehm Honored as Illinois School Nurse of the Year

On October 18, 2008, Donna Rehm was awarded the highest honor given by the Illinois Association of School Nurses (IASN) - Illinois School Nurse of the Year (ISNY). Donna, the Nurse at High Point School in Orland District 135, said that she was "very surprised" and "very honored" to be the 2008-2009 ISNY recipient, though her colleagues were not surprised at all. High Point Principal Marianne Byrnes commented, " High Point students with a multitude of health concerns are met by a confident, competent, compassionate and caring nurse in Donna. She is ready to put a plan in place to meet the needs of each child."

Superintendent Dennis Soustek agreed, noting, "[Donna] has the ability to deal effectively with every possible medical circumstance in her school, while calming the fears of frightened and injured children. She is the type of nurse every parent would hope their child would experience in a trip to the office."

Donna was required to complete a lengthy application process for the ISNY award, which addressed the following areas: assessment, diagnosis, outcomes identification, planning, implementation and evaluation; quality of practice; education; professional practice evaluation; collegiality; collaboration; ethics; research; resource utilization; leadership; and program management. The application was well-supported, with a wealth of materials she has developed to support the school nurse practice, and copies of a multitude of articles Donna has written, for which she has won two excellence in writing awards. Donna was part of a radio broadcast on the topic of health insurance for children, and also advised State Representative Kevin McCarthy in support of the Green Cleaning for Schools Act.

Donna was nominated for the award by her IASN peers in the Lakeshore-Calumet Division, the largest division of the organization, on which she serves as President-Elect.

Donna serves on the AFT Local 943 executive board and is a member of its senate representing the Orland Park council. She is one of nine nurses on the AFT national school nurse committee dedicated to school health.

As a member of the AFT committee, Donna has helped write resolutions and has spoken at national conferences addressing the critical issues relating to school nursing. She has been very active in the Union on the local and national level for many years, noted local 943 president Kathy Setlak. “Donna gets involved and does an outstanding job on all levels.”

In addition to her union involvement, Donna serves on the District 135 Green Schools Committee, Celebration of Stars Staff Recognition Committee, Institute Day Development Committee and she is a member of High Point's Crisis Response Team and Child Study Team. She also teaches her colleagues life-saving skills like CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. In fact, Donna recalls one of her proudest and scariest moments as a School Nurse involved such a technique, where she had to perform the Heimlich maneuver on a colleague, managing to dislodge the obstruction after several attempts.

Donna has a Master's Degree in Community Health and Leadership from St. Xavier's University, and earned the Sigma Theta Tau (Nursing Honor Society) award for Outstanding Nursing Graduate Student.

CONGRATULATIONS DONNA