by Peyton Boyskey

Have you ever wondered what some of the Palisades staff did before they started working in our school? Mrs. Page, our school nurse, had an intriguing story to tell about her time before caring for us as our school nurse. 

Starting in elementary school, Mrs. Page knew she wanted to be a nurse. During high school, she tried pediatric nursing but admitted that she didn’t like it. She explained that she did a three-month semester but she just wasn’t passionate about it which surprised her. Following that, she went into the military. First, she was in Kentucky for 4 years before she was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq for 14 months (October 2007- January 2009). She worked at Ibn Sina Hospital, in Baghdad Iraq. She showed me a picture of the military hospital and said that a lot of people would be outside, requesting help but she had to decline them because it was a military hospital, not for civilians.

After that, she spent five years in the Army Reserve. After 9 years of active duty, Mrs. Page left and began to work in the NICU with premature babies. “I loved it,” she stated, which also surprised her. She described that it was amazing to see how resilient the babies could be along with the impact that she made. “Even some of the sickest babies had the most amazing outcomes” she described. After working in the NICU for 10 years, she transitioned into school nursing. 

Two of her biggest influences are her grandfather, a helicopter pilot in the military for 20 years, and our previous school nurse Dawn Fulton, who influenced her to join and become a school nurse. In addition to that, another factor that influenced her to switch was that she now has the same schedule as her children. Mrs. Page has 4 kids, a 13-year-old, a set of 10-year-old twins, and a 7-year-old. She said that her life outside of school is consumed with her kids. She has little time left between sports practices, music, and dance recitals. 

Advice that she gives to anyone wanting to go into a medical career would be to try it out before you do it. She explained to try and get a summer job or internship in healthcare first to see if you like it and if you want to do it. She also shared her advice for joining the military: “Just do it- It’s a great opportunity.” She explained how you get to meet and work with amazing people, and you get to travel the world.