Constance F. Griffin, Valley Central Teachers Association
Constance Griffin has been caring for students as a school nurse for 32 years. As a registered nurse at Valley Central School District, Griffin plays an active role in safeguarding students’ health and safety, and ministers to both chronic and acute conditions. She takes pride in watching students grow and learn to care for themselves independently.
School nurses also help with preventive care, she said, including hearing and vision screenings and physicals for athletics. “As a school nurse, we may be the first to observe and identify changes, and we also can see the long-term effects of our care and how we help students achieve,” Griffin said.
A national board-certified nurse, Griffin sits on the steering committee for NYSUT’s School Nurse Connection, which provides valuable training, on-the-job support, and advocacy for this underrepresented sector of the healthcare industry. Griffin has also been part of NYSUT’s Collective Care Team advocacy efforts and helped push for legislation that would develop school health and mental health professionals-to-student ratios in public schools and mandate all school districts and BOCES employ at least one registered professional nurse in each school building; currently, districts are not required to have RNs at every school.
Sharing the value of school nurses is paramount, said Griffin. “They keep children in school healthy and ready to learn.”