Congratulations to Catherine "Caddie" Haese for the School Nurse of Excellence Award (SNEA)

SNEA 2020 is awarded to Catherine "Caddie" Haese of Chugiak HS and Gruening MS.

The 2020 recipient of the School Nurse Excellence in Alaska award is Catherine Haese, BSN, RN, NCSN. Her experience has spanned elementary, middle, and high school, and at present is the Anchorage School District (ASD) Chugiak High School/Gruening Middle School nurse due to the earthquake in November 2018.  The schools are still combined with 1600+ students in grades 7-12 in which she works with an LPN to serve this community. Since 2012, she has been a Child in Transition coordinator. 

She is part of a public learning community and is the disaster safety team leader. She has invited many community organizations to speak to students.  She instituted a scavenger hunt with the health classes to find AEDs and med sleds in the building. She has worked with counselors on the vaping crisis.  Working with the Alaska school health nurse consultant, she is piloting research with 8thgraders for a screening tool that helps identify high health risk behaviors.

School nursing professional contributions include past Vice President of the Alaska School Nurse Association (ASNA), work on an ASNA state conference committee, participation in an ASD middle school nurse cohort group, mentoring new ASD school nurses, precepting nursing students, and current National Board for Certification of School Nurses state liaison for Alaska.  ASNA asked her to write about her experience of administering a life-saving epinephrine injection to a student experiencing anaphylaxis to an unknown allergen. The National Association of School Nurses is working to publish a story highlighting the impact school nurses have on student health and safety. Catherine believes “safety is the cornerstone of any healthcare system,” and states: “I have truly found my niche in secondary education: empowering students to speak up about their needs and grow into independent adults who are able to make healthy safe choices.”