HARLINGEN — Finishing high school was hard for Verna Garza.
But that didn’t stop her from becoming Nurse of the Year for the Harlingen school district.
“It’s incredibly humbling,” said Garza, 51, school nurse at Vela Middle School, where she has taken care of kids for 12 years.
So commanding is her presence and skill at nursing that all school nurses train with her at Coakley — and that’s how they knew to vote for her as nurse of the year.
Garza has been a nurse for 29 years.
Before she came to Vela, she worked in hospice care, family practice, dialysis, and hospitals.
Why did she decide to become a school nurse 12 years ago?
“My last son had just graduated from high school. We had the empty nest syndrome at home,” she recalled. “I said, ‘You know, I think I can give back and encourage kids in school, kids like me, kids that are struggling.’”
Garza remembers her struggles in school.
“I come from a very humbled background,” she said. “My parents were extremely poor. I was a high school dropout. I got my GED at 18. It was actually a sister that motivated me. She said, ‘You should become a nurse.’ I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Become a nurse?’”
But she did just that and it became her life.
“Nursing has changed my life actually,” she said. “And because it’s done so much for me I try to give 150 percent every day.”
She chose middle school for the challenges specific to that age group.
“I felt like I could really make a difference in that age group and encourage kids by being there for them and fulfilling their health needs first and then their emotional needs,” she said.
And their health needs are substantial.
“School has become more and more challenging,” she said. “There are children with very severe illnesses, acute illnesses. We’ve got children with feeding tubes, children on dialysis who come to school. And we tend to those illnesses every day, and it’s super important that we’re up to date with the latest to be able to take care of them.”
