“I love working in a high school setting with teenagers. It’s really cool to be able to work at different sites every day and constantly see new faces,” said District nurse Kristin Coronado. Born and raised in Redwood City, Coronado attended Woodside High School and enjoyed school from a young age. Though she never expected to be a high school nurse, Coronado’s roots in the Bay Area ended up leading her back to her own high school district.
After graduating from Woodside, Coronado attended the Fire Academy program at the College of San Mateo (CSM) with hopes of becoming a firefighter. She said, “I loved the program, but I realized that was not the life I wanted to live. It was really hard physically and mentally. But, I liked the healthcare side of it, and that led me to nursing.”
Coronado then transitioned into the nursing program at CSM and earned her Registered Nurse (RN) degree. While looking for a hospital job as a new graduate, she took the opening for a health aid at Woodside in 2008. She said, “I thought I would just be a health aid for a few years until I got a hospital job where I really wanted to work, but ten years later I was still there and really loved it.”
While working as a health aid, Coronado went back to school and got her bachelor’s degree online at Western Governors University so she could apply for the District nurse position. She said, “I didn’t even think about being a District nurse until I was working at Woodside and realized I loved the environment.” While school health aids typically provide basic first aid support, a school nurse is a licensed healthcare professional that can administer medical treatment and perform health assessments.
As a District nurse, Coronado mostly focuses on helping special education students and facilitating vision and hearing screenings. She also oversees all the health aids at each school. She said, “At first I was just a District nurse for Woodside and Menlo-Atherton, but we lost our other two District nurses, so I picked up the other school sites.”
When asked what the biggest challenge as a high school nurse is, she said, “It’s hard when students come in with big injuries or illnesses. I wish I could do more sometimes.”
Coronado’s hardest years as a nurse were during the peak of the pandemic when she had to report each positive case of COVID-19. Her job changed immensely and she had to work many extra hours.
Despite having a time-consuming and challenging job, Coronado is able to spend free time with her two sons—a senior at Woodside and a six-year-old. She also enjoys hiking, being adventurous outdoors, and painting.
Coronado concluded, “I love my job. I really like forming relationships with each student and supporting them in any way I can.”
