The School Health Division is pleased to announce the inaugural winner of the new School Health Aide of the Year award for the 2023-24 school year. Implemented this year, the award recognizes an exemplary School Health Aide who has demonstrated excellent health room practices, exceptional customer service, extraordinary teamwork, and contributions linked to the vision, mission, and values of the Health Department. This year’s School Health Aide of the Year awardee is Kristy Mattey who was assigned to Daniels Run Elementary School and now works at Frost Middle School. Kristy was nominated by her supervisor JeanHee Jeong.
School Health Aides are trained paraprofessionals assigned to work in the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) health rooms during school hours. School Health Aides provide care for illness or injury, help to ensure students take medications appropriately, coordinate vision and hearing health screenings for students, respond to health emergencies, and monitor student absence data.
Kristy serves as a coach for new School Health Aide hires; pays meticulous attention to detail; exhibits high organizational skills; and ensures health room care cards and screening results are well documented. Kristy, who has worked as a School Health Aide for 2.5 years, is being recognized for taking initiative and continuously seeking ways to improve. For example, Kristy proposed the idea of documenting puff counts for the inhaler [a medical device used by students with asthma to help open airways] and developed a FCPS Inhaler Administration Chart, which was implemented. The new Inhaler Administration Chart not only enhances accurate documentation, but it also makes the number of priming readily accessible on the chart which can impact the proper administration of the student’s inhaler.
Furthermore, Kristy suggested to the school administrator at her school to add a Hearing and Vision screening in the Welcome Tour for the new students. By collaborating with the school counselor, Kristy was able to successfully implement the new process to create a more proactive approach in identifying any potential barriers to learning, create less disturbance for the teachers, and less learning interruption for the students. She demonstrates a strong understanding of school health policies and protocols by keeping up to date and inspires others by consistently going above and beyond.
“I am honored to receive the School Health Aide of the Year award and appreciate the continued support of my peers and leaders,” said Kristy. “Working for the Health Department has shown me the importance of bridging the gap between the community and the school system to keep our students safe and healthy and I couldn't be prouder to be part of the amazing School Health team who set out every day to make that difference.”
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