Ever since she was 6 years old and her father was diagnosed with diabetes, Trinity’s new school nurse, Jennifer Weiser, knew she wanted to work in the medical field.
“[My dad] included me in the process of learning how to manage his diabetes,” Weiser said. “He would let me help him with his shots and things like that, so I always thought, ‘I’m going to take care of my family.’ I feel like I had a natural inclination to take care of people.”
During nursing school, Weiser explored a variety of medical fields through rotations in areas like women’s health, pediatrics and long-term care.
After graduating from the University of Central Florida, she joined Orlando Health as a surgical oncology nurse.
“They did these amazing surgeries there called flap surgeries,” Weiser said. “They could take an area of skin from one part of the body and rebuild another part after they removed the cancer using the patient’s own skin. To me, that was the coolest thing ever.”
Inspired by her newfound passion for wound care, Weiser pursued a program in Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing at the Cleveland Clinic.
“That’s the good thing about nursing,” Weiser said. “It’s versatile, so you can try any area that you have an interest in.”
Later, she moved to Advent Health and worked with bone marrow transplant patients. However, the long 12- to 13-hour shifts were hard to manage as a mother of three.
“It really wasn’t a good fit for me,” Weiser said. “I had some patients who weren’t going to make it, which was very emotionally difficult to deal with.”
That’s when Weiser discovered school nursing as a possible career path.
“I like teaching, and I like nursing, so I thought school nursing would be appealing,” Weiser said.
Weiser then took a job at United Cerebral Palsy of Central Florida charter school, working with a population of about 300 students.
Weiser’s favorite aspect of school nursing is the opportunity it presents to teach children how to take control of their own health and learn more about their bodies.
“[Children] remember things that they learn through experience,” Weiser said. “If you come in with an injury and learn something about your body or about healing that you didn’t know before, you take that with you. I like giving information and teaching things that the kids can take with them and use through their life.”
Her journey eventually brought her to Trinity when she researched the school and found that their mission aligned with her own.
“When you think, ‘What is one of the most difficult things about the human experience?’ it’s pain and suffering and illness,” Weiser said. “So, the common factor is just helping people get back to their optimum, just facilitating that resiliency and helping people be better again. That’s what’s done here on a broad, educational, holistic level.”
