About 55 children visit Susan Brock in the health suite at Churchville Elementary School each day.
Some of them come in daily to take their medications, while others have abrasions, fevers or sore throats. And some youngsters just come in to talk, or to give Brock a high-five or a hug.
"School nurses have to be patient and compassionate," said Brock, 59, who has worked as a nurse for 39 years. "I have some frequent flyers that come in, and they just want to talk. They need attention and kindness."
For 23 years, Brock, affectionately known as "Ms. Brock" by students and their parents, has cared for the pupils at the elementary school. Last week, during National Nurses Week, she was named the Harford County School Nurse of the Year.
The recognition was deserved, said Thomas Smith, in his first year as the principal of Churchville Elementary School.
"In my personal opinion, she is the best school nurse anyone could ever be," Smith said. "She has a wonderful rapport with the students, parents and all the staff. She makes being a school nurse look easy, but it takes a special person to be a school nurse."
Pupils at the school agreed with Smith's sentiments.
When Devon Perrine heard Brock had been selected as the school nurse of the year, he was excited.
"At first I couldn't believe it," said Perrine, 9, of Street. "Then I was like woo-hoo! She really is the best nurse in the whole world. She is so nice I can't even say it."
Brock said she became a nurse because they impressed her when she was a child.
"The nurses I saw when I was growing up were so intelligent and caring," she said. "I thought that what they did was very interesting."
Upon graduating from high school, she attended what was then Harford Junior College, and in 1968, she graduated with an associate's degree in nursing.
She went to work as a psychiatric nurse at the veterans hospital in Perry Point. During the next two decades, Brock worked as a medical-surgical nurse and an industrial nurse. After her children were born, she worked part time.
Once they started school, she took a job as a school nurse because it allowed her to be there for her children, she said.
Brock is a top-notch nurse, said Mary Nasuta, the nurse coordinator for the Harford County public schools.
"We are proud to have Ms. Brock as our School Nurse of the Year because she exemplifies excellent school nurse practice," she said.
