And I take our program public

CCIU Countywide at Immaculata University

Today I had the honor of presenting an Emotion Management Program my School Counselor Sarah and I developed last year to help our students manage and cope with stress and the strong emotions they feel. This has been a labor of love for the past year and in October I was fortunate to discover a nurse Tweeter that has a blog followed by so many. Robin became my sounding board for this program. I published what we were doing and it literally went viral. In 48 hours I received requests for more information from at least 30 nurses all over the country. The President of our National Association of School Nurses reached out with interest in sharing my story in a presentation she was doing in Colorado the following month (and I have heard she did talk about me!) and asked about publishing an article in our School Nurse Journal. I have had requests from local state school nurse organizations to present at their annual conferences and district nurses all over the country request that I Skype in to their next PD to present what we are doing. All I can say is AMEN! I am so happy to give whatever I can give to enhance the school nurse practice to focus on mental health issues.

My 15 year old daughter lost two friends last year to teen suicide so It has become my passion to do what ever I can to offer help and support to our children to given them tools to cope with the stress they are experiencing everyday. We have no idea the level of pain and distress they are feeling. We did not have social media the academic pressures with little to no SEL skills being taught to us at school, working parents that are so overwhelmed with schedules and jobs to even think about how to mold strong human beings. It has become our jobs as school nurses and educators to do this most important work. I

Right now I am settling in with my mentor, Brene Brown, and starting Rising Strong to further encourage my passions. Thank you to all that have supported this passion of mine and I can only hope I can inspire others to do this important work.