Jane Ann McWilliams-Sykes is a Saint Louis Public Schools nurse at Dewey International Studies School. She has been a registered nurse for 35 years, and nearly 32 years of her career has been with SLPS.
Dewey has a smaller but diverse student population from preschool to grade five, and the children speak more than 40 native languages. McWilliams-Sykes said the school has a strong English Language Learners program, and all students are exposed to multiple languages.
“My kids are exposed to three languages when they are very young and when they get to kindergarten, they start taking a language themselves,” she said. “My kids take Spanish; they take Japanese; they take German; they take French.”
McWilliams-Sykes, who is strictly an English-speaker, enlists the help of teachers for translation if needed.
“I am also able to get all of my appointments translated at the International Institute,” she said.
For some of the students, McWilliams-Sykes is the only health professional they have seen and as such, she does everything she can to keep students healthy and in class.
“The thing that my kids come with is – a lot of them have not been exposed … kids have not had the healthcare that they should have – and I’m talking about periodic exams … dental … vision, so at Dewey, I’ve made it my point to do some things that are specific (I think) to here.
Those specific things include collaborating with Crown Vision for eye exams and free prescription eyewear for students if needed.
“When they come in, they will screen my whole school in targeted grades, and if the parents sign, they will come back with the van from UMSL and those kids will pick those glasses and get those glasses if they needed,” McWilliams-Sykes said. “And there is nothing like a student didn’t know he wasn’t seeing – suddenly seeing.”
Back from H1N1 influenza outbreak, McWilliams-Sykes said it was mandated that schools have a flu clinic. She has continued it by forging a partnership with Visiting Nurse Association for its flu shot clinics.
“I not only do it for my kids, but I do it for my staff and also it’s branched out to the community, because I’m trying to get some herd immunity, so maybe if I can keep my kids not being sick, maybe it will extend to their families and the community,” she added.
In addition, as much as she loves pretty teeth and a beautiful smile, she does not want tooth pain to distract a child’s studies. McWilliams-Sykes said oral health care is a real need among Dewey students.
“Up until the time the dentist started coming from Gateway dental, I was having two or three toothaches a month, and really no way to refer them or no way I knew to refer them,” she said. That has changed.
“We have an in-school dentist that comes from Gateway to Oral Health … they come in for 10 – 12 visits a year,” McWilliams-Sykes said.
During those visits, the school library becomes an onsite dental clinic.
“Everything is done for my kids in that space – up to braces,” she said. “We send out braces, but the great majority of my kids have never seen a dentist other than in this school.”
Dewey students see the dentist twice a year for cleanings, filling cavities, and it is all done onsite so they do not have to miss school and parents do not have to miss work.
“Nobody is missing anything because it is happening here in the school,” she said. “And you’d also think that kids would be afraid, but they’re really not. For some of my kids, this is all the care that they know.”
It is hard not to notice how personally invested this school nurse is in the health of the students, always referring to the youngsters as “my kids” – which is how it has been for the 25 years she’s been at Dewey.
McWilliams-Sykes earned an associate degree in nursing at St. Louis Jr. (Community) College at Forest Park.
She is the president of both the NEA-St. Louis and the St. Louis Nurses Association. She is also a board member of the Missouri School Nurses Association.
Far from bumps, scrapes and first aid, McWilliams-Sykes the role of school nurses encompasses the gamut of health needs and she thanks all of her community care partners for providing services to support student success.
