Sitting in class, you begin to feel a sharp pain in your head. Once you are given the salmon-colored nurses’ pass, you head off towards the clinic. Nurse Carol Wiley checks your temperature to determine if you have a fever; then she walks over to her medicine cabinet and pulls out a remedy. Now that you’re fixed up, you head out, leaving Nurse Wiley in the clinic.

A nurse’s work is never done, however. In addition to her nursing duties here, Wiley assists the district’s lead nurse and audits other schools’ clinics, meaning she makes sure that their medicine isn’t expired, that they have the correct supplies, and that the enviroment is correct for each school.

“We actually go into each of the schools, making sure that they have the doctor’s orders  for the tube feeds or medication and the inhalers that the children need, making sure that that all is in place,” Wiley said.

Nurse Wiley also has another job at Kerr:  she helps with the application process, updating students’ records when they apply, and she is the one who calls to tell them if they have made it into the school or not. If the answer is a no, she advises students what can be improved to reapply for the next school year.

“I call all of the parents up whenever Mr. Freeman tells me, ‘Hey this child has made it to Kerr,” and I am also the person on the phone that says, ‘I’m sorry your child did not make it to Kerr,'” she said.

Despite her position of sometimes being the bearer of bad news, Wiley remains enthusiastic.   

“I love my job, I really truly do.”