Katie Pawlak, a 1995 graduate of Gowanda High School, and her daughter, Grace Pawlak, a 2019 graduate, work together at Bertrand Chaffee Hospital in Springville. Submitted Photo

GOWANDA — Gowanda’s High School Nurse Katie Pawlak received special recognition recently. The Excellence in School Nursing Award was awarded to Pawlak at the end of September and came to her as a complete surprise.

“I was actually nominated by the Middle School and Elementary nurses,” Pawlak said. “I didn’t know anything about it. It was a big surprise when I did receive it.”

Pawlak has served as the Gowanda High School nurse since 2017 and in her time in that role, has grown to form close personal bonds with the students there, which she described as her favorite part of the job.

“My favorite part of being a nurse in school is working with kids every day,” Pawlak said. “I enjoy school nursing because you aren’t just working with sick kids, you’re working with healthy kids every day. You build up relationships with them and it is very rewarding.”

But the community at Gowanda is a prosperous environment for someone in Pawlak’s field, according to Pawlak herself. In her own eyes, she went to work and did her job to the best of her ability, for the benefit of the students and the colleagues that nominated her.

“I was so flattered and really humbled,” Pawlak said. “I go to work each day and work hard at my job. I don’t feel like I do anything outside of the standard but apparently my colleagues felt differently. They’re a good group to work with.”

Before coming to Gowanda, Pawlak held a position as an Emergency Room nurse, while being a substitute teacher at Gowanda during that time as well. With all that information in hand, as well as past experience serving as a school nurse in a different district, Pawlak knew what to expect when she took the job.

What experience couldn’t prepare Pawlak for though was the COVID-19 pandemic, which posed a whole new set of challenges for all school nurses, including Pawlak. Because of that though, Pawlak has learned a lot over the past several months, while it has also changed some of her responsibilities.

“I’ve learned so much about infection control and communication between Health Departments and all the different standards with contact tracing and testing,” Pawlak said. “A lot of our time this year is committed to contact tracing assistance with Health Departments and getting kids back in as soon as we can. I tell people daily we don’t know if it’s a cold unless you’ve had a COVID test. We can’t say it’s just a cold anymore.”

Pawlak’s interest in the field has passed off to her daughter, Grace, who is currently in the St. John Fisher nursing program. During the pandemic, when students were sent home from college, Grace Pawlak got to work with her mom on a per diem basis at the hospital in Springville as a nursing assistant. Though Pawlak is proud to see her daughter enter the field like she has, she has her concerns about the specific timing of it.

“I have mixed emotions,” Pawlak said. “I know what a difficult field it is to get into right now. She has two more years until she finishes her bachelors and I’m hoping this is behind us by the time she gets out. I feel excited for her and it’s exciting to think of her coming out fresh into the state of medicine. She has so many opportunities ahead of her and so many different avenues she can take.”

While Pawlak doesn’t expect to be able to attend the ceremony in November to actually receive the award, that doesn’t make the honor any less special. And in a time where people in the medical field are at their most valuable, awards like the one Pawlak receive could not come at a better time.