Bulloch County Schools’ lead nurse was named Georgia’s School Nurse Administrator of the Year during the Georgia Association of School Nurses’ (GASN) annual conference in Jekyll Island on June 12.
Fay Blythe, who has served Bulloch County Schools for almost nine years, was nominated by LaShunda Staten, the school nurse at Mattie Lively Elementary School. A panel of community judges, who are not affiliated with GASN, selected her from this year’s nominees.
“Mrs. Blythe is an incredible asset to our district,” said Dawn Tysinger, Ph.D., executive director of Student Wellness and Support for Bulloch County Schools. “She has a proactive approach and continually advances our school nursing program to promote wellness among our students. She brings forth positive change due to the respect that she has garnered through her knowledge, skills, and professionalism. She is incredibly deserving of this state-level recognition.”
Blythe was promoted to the district’s lead nurse position in November 2021. Her work includes overseeing 16 school nurses and two special education classroom nurses. She offers support, guidance, and consultation to the nursing staff about individual student issues, school clinic functions, and administrative matters.
“She is a critical liaison between our school nurses, building administrators, and district-level personnel,” said Tysinger. “She is so effective in this role that her skills are sought from personnel at each of the levels.“
This year, Blythe has engaged in a number of valuable initiatives to support the wellness of students. She has trained additional staff at every building and grade level in seizure response. She helped develop a new board of education policy related to how medication will be administered in schools, and she has facilitated the placement of additional automated external defibrillators in each of our district buildings. In support of professional development for school nurses, she coordinated training on new mass casualty response kits that were purchased and placed in the schools by the district’s safety department.
Blythe has a bachelor’s degree in exercise science with a concentration in athletic training from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Georgia Southern University. She is a registered nurse (RN), and she initially worked in the intensive care unit at East Georgia Regional Medical Center while also working part time as a parent mentor with Bulloch County Schools.
In 2016, she became the school nurse at Cedarwood in Statesboro before becoming the district’s lead nurse. She also serves students in Bulloch County Schools’ Transitions Learning Center and its new Learn Empower Adapt Pride (LEAP) program.
“Mrs. Blythe and her contributions are a gift to our students, families, and community members,” Tysinger added.
