Newly-hired Roberta Gibson takes on the role of the new nurse for three days a week instead of one. Gibson is excited to go through this new experience as a first-time high school nurse.

“My supervisor assigned me here, so I thought, “This sounds great,’” Gibson said. “It’s very interesting. I hear that you’re the smallest high school in LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District), which is very cool and it just sounded like a very interesting magnet.”

Gibson is on campus for three days a week instead of one day a week, which had been the norm for many years.

“It is great because we get to take care of students’ needs much better than with one (day) on campus,” Principal Armen Petrossian said.

Though Gibson has worked for many elementary schools including Lokrantz Special Education Center and Welby Way Elementary, this is her first time working with high school students.

“There is a little bit of a difference,” Gibson said. “I think in elementary, we get a lot more little kids coming in because they’re bumping their heads and falling or hurting themselves while playing more than in the high school level and I think that’s one big difference. With high school, the students are more interactive. They think a little differently than the elementary children because you guys are more mature. So it’s nice to talk to your generation.”

She first fell in love with the idea of being a nurse when she saw an encyclopedia that showed her a picture of a nurse taking care of a baby. From then on, Gibson knew that she wanted to help others and she made it her goal to become a nurse. Gibson’s pursuit of her career started at Pierce College where she studied for four years. Between that time, she became a licensed vocational nurse in 1979. She soon became a registered nurse in 1989.

“Since I was a young child, I was always wanting to help and make things better,” Gibson said. “I’d go save things, like from spider webs. And my dad had bought a set of encyclopedias and I would look through the pictures and there was a baby nurse and I thought ‘Oh that’s what I want to do.’”

After becoming a registered nurse (R.N.), Gibson found a new passion: working with the younger generation. Her inspiration for wanting to become a school nurse stemmed from her love of working with younger kids.

“I love working with the younger kids and I like to try to inform them so they can be healthier and also help them with their needs,” Gibson said. “I want them to do the best they can in school because you guys are our next generation and anything we can do to help is very important.”