LOVELOCK - Deborah Pontius, Health Services coordinator/school nurse for Pershing County School District, recently returned from the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) annual conference in Orlando, Fla.
While there, she was presented with a national award as well as speaking at a general session. Pontius received the "President's Recognition Award" in recognition of outstanding leadership in the NASN Position Document process at a special awards ceremony during the conference.
Pontius recently completed a four-year term on the NASN national board of directors as the director from Nevada. While on the board, Pontius was elected to a two-year term on the Executive Committee (EC). The committee included the NASN President, Vice President, Secretary-Treasurer and three other board members, in addition to Pontius.
The EC was responsible for leadership of the national organization between biannual board meetings. One of Pontius's responsibilities on the committee was to chair the Research Strategic Committee for the organization.
She completely redesigned and rewrote the policies and procedures describing a new method of creating national positions statements. She received her award of excellence for the development of this body of work.
Also, while on the board, Pontius wrote several national position statements. These involve researching the available evidence and taking a stand on health issues important to students nationwide.
One of the statements Pontius authored was on head lice in schools. Several years ago, Pontius presented the current state of the evidence of how lice are transmitted and science-based information for the management of lice in schools.
After her presentation, Pershing County School District became a model for current practice about lice to the rest of the country. Since that time, Pontius has become known as a national expert on the topic. She published an article on the topic in the NASN School Nurse journal and spoke at a national webinar with Dr. Shirley Gordon last fall to an audience of approximately 1,000 people.
Pontius, along with Dr. Gordon, were once again asked to speak about head lice in schools at a general session of over 800 people at the NASN annual conference.
At the hour-long session, Dr. Gordon spoke about current scientific knowledge about lice and how they are shared, as well has her own research on the emotional toll of a family diagnosed with lice.
Pontius then spoke about using scientific evidence to help school districts create research-based lice management policies that control the problem while keeping children in school. The program was extremely well received, earning them the some highest evaluation comments of the conference.
While at the conference, Pontius was heavily recruited to run for national office, but after careful consideration, she has decided to decline and focus her efforts on state and local health issues.
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