Nurse Ilena Leads GOA Through COVID-19 Pandemic

By Jack Spigler ‘24

This school year has been anything but normal, especially for Nurse Ilena, who has been working tirelessly to ensure everyone is able to attend school in-person and safely.
    “This process started very early,” Nurse Ilena said. “As soon as school was closed back in March as we transitioned to a remote focus.”
The nurse spent long hours working with the CDC NJ Department of Health, as well as the West Orange Department of Health in order to ensure a return to school in the fall. 

As in-person school goes on, the work continues. Masks, gloves, air filters and plexiglass all have been purchased to assure enough supplies to last the year. Classrooms had to be adjusted to work with social distancing guidelines.
“We couldn’t do it without the hard work and determination of our faculty and staff, or without the cooperation of all our families and students,” Nurse Ilena said.
Nurse Ilena did not always plan to be a school nurse, and she certainly did not imagine being one during a pandemic. 
“As a child, I wanted to be an astronaut,” she said. “When I realized that likely wasn’t going to happen, I knew that I had a passion for the sciences.” 
After two years majoring in biology, she transferred into a nursing school in order to work in a more hands-on, human contact career.
Her nursing career started in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit helping premature infants, a job she loved and appreciated.
“I was able to develop strong bonds with their families as some of these babies would be hospitalized for months,” Nurse Ilena said. “Providing comfort and support for those families was so important to me.” 
Nurse Ilena has always liked working with children, but she has never done it quite like she does currently. This year has greatly changed her daily schedule, especially since COVID-19 restrictions have limited student visits to her office and demand contact tracing as well as keeping up with changing guidelines and protocols.
 “I think the biggest difference for my day to day job is that I do not get to see as many kids in my office during the school day,” she said. “I truly consider myself a public health nurse now more than ever and am happy to be on the front lines with my fellow health care providers.”  
Members of the GOA community are fortunate to “have the resources and hard working people that we do at GOA,” said Nurse Ilena. 
To make sure that students are able to stay in school, Nurse Ilena suggests remaining calm while facing the unpredictable, as well as taking the time to learn about the virus and the science.
“It’s essential for us to remain flexible and willing to adapt as new information is learned,” she said.
In addition, it is important to make sure to take the best safety precautions to keep the community safe and stay positive.
Even though trips are impossible at the moment, Nurse Ilena is hopeful.
“Once vaccination is approved for children under 16, we will be in an even better place,” Nurse Ilena said. “I know that GOA relies very heavily on its experiential education and field trips, but it definitely needs to be completely safe for the school to entertain sending people off campus.” 
While waiting for trips to return, students can still enjoy COVID-safe on-campus activities such as the high school badminton tournament. 
Nurse Ilena has also learned from this virus.
“I believe that working in this pandemic as a nurse has taught me that we can do anything if we work together as a team. No one knows everything.” 
Nurse Ilena has been able to enjoy pursuing hobbies like playing the flute, cooking and learning new games like Mah Jongg. 
This year has been difficult for everyone, but thanks to the hard work from Nurse Ilena and the whole school, the GOA community has been able to stay connected and in school together. 
Nurse Ilena said, “it was definitely a tiring and time-consuming process, but so worthwhile as we have been able to keep our school open for learning since day one of this school year.”