Violet Clarke, who serves as the school nurse at Chávez High School, has been named one of the area’s “Top 10 Nurses” by the Houston Chronicle for 2014.
She was selected from among hundreds of nominees who come from all fields of nursing in the greater Houston area, including local hospitals, schools, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and home health workers.
“The job of a school nurse is unique,” wrote former Principal Dan De Leon about Clarke on his nomination form. “Unless you have done it, you do not realize the fast pace and varied extremes of this profession. One minute, a student walks in with a sore throat, and the next, you get a call about another who is having a severe allergic reaction in another part of the building. Before the hour is up, you have dealt with three parents, a teenager who is afraid to (confess) she is pregnant, another who is being abused at home, and a student who needs his daily medication to control his bipolar disorder…but Nurse Clarke makes it look easy.”
