As a nurse, Marilyn Anchors carries a heavy caseload. In her charge are 240 children — from 3-year-olds to kindergartners — who attend Coralwood, a DeKalb County school for students with special needs and at-risk pupils.
Because of their medical needs, seeing the school nurse is a daily routine for many students.
“In a hospital, many kids see a nurse coming and they think they’re going to get a shot,” Anchors said. “That’s not the case here. These kids don’t get anxious coming to see me, which is great.”
Some of Anchors’ young patients see her for tube feedings, injections and monitoring.
“We have kids here who have seizures, lots of kids with asthma, and others with very unusual or different syndromes,” she said. “Because of that, this is not a typical nursing job.”
Anchors comes to her position well-prepared. Growing up in a small town in Massachusetts, she counted among her friends and neighbors people who moved there to be close to the major medical centers in nearby Boston.
“As a kid, we had a lot of medically fragile kids in our neighborhood,” she said. “I used to babysit for kids with special needs and I volunteered for special-needs camps and Special Olympics. I’ve always felt comfortable with it, maybe because I’m also a third-generation nurse. It’s in my blood and that’s what led me to pediatrics.”
Anchors graduated from nursing school in 1980 and began her career working in pediatric wards, including recovery rooms and dialysis centers. In 10 years working at Coralwood School, Anchors has relied on play therapy to make medical procedures easier for students.
“I do use a lot of that here, because I honestly feel the kids shouldn’t be afraid of medical procedures,” she said. “I use those skills to engage them and to remove the anxiety of seeing the nurse, especially in an emergency situation.”
Coralwood School social worker Jackie McKnight hailed Anchors’ ability to remain calm, no matter how intense the emergency.
“One of our blind, wheelchair-bound children had a huge seizure,” McKnight wrote in her nomination. “I picked him up and ran to Marilyn’s office where she immediately worked his arms, legs and entire body. She saved his life. There was no doubt in my mind that he would have died without her helping him.”
Anchors’ compassion also extends to the staff, supporting them inside and outside the classroom. She’s a regular attendee at the school’s after-hours events and treats sick staff members when they need it.
“This is the perfect job for me; I was brought up to do it,” she said. “There’s a tight-knit bond here among students, families and specialists. I just love it.”
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