Nurse Widel stands in front of one of the quilts displayed at the Yerger Middle infirmary.

This article is one in a series of articles in observance of National Nurse’s Week. We will be posting profiles of local nurses each day.

When she was in high school, Marcia Widel had a helpful conversation with legendary counselor Earl Downs who told her SAU-Magnolia had a good program in nursing. For Widel, that fit. “Growing up, I was always putting Band Aids on my dolls, or rubbing Vicks on them or treating them in some way,” Widel said.

She graduated from SAU with an Associates degree in two years. She worked first at Wadley Regional in Texarkana, Texas. Then she worked in a nursery in Salt Lake City “where the Mormon mothers would have eight babies,” she said. “It would not be uncommon.”

When she came back to Arkansas, she worked at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences assisting with bone marrow transplants. “My first husband died of cancer,” Widel said. “So after that, I went into oncology for a few years.”

When she arrived in Hope in 2009. Widel began working as a substitute nurse. “I helped with the screenings and shot records and whatever else needed doing, covering offices when a nurse needed a day off. And then I was hired full time in 2012 at this school.”

She’s referring to Yerger Middle School where her clinic has a cozy quilt on hanging display to greet students in need. She’s been there long enough now to see her former patients now in the workplace in town.

The most common diagnoses made and seen in the clinic is ADHD, but two other conditions show up frequently, too. “We have diabetic students, asthmatic students, that kind of thing,” she said.

The middle school years are such a time of dramatic change for students. Widel says she sees her share of cases arise from that reality. “There's been a lot of physical altercations. There's vaping, drug issues, teen pregnancy. It's a time of emotional upheaval and for a lot of kids puberty. There's a lot going on in those years.”

As a case in point, in March Yerger was the scene of an incident in which what was alleged to be Fentanyl-laced candy was brought to campus and sickened two students. Widel said the two students had recovered and returned to school.

Like that of many medical professionals, Widel’s work load increased with the COVID pandemic, which she called a “totally new adventure. . . . I've been involved in contact tracing, sending kids home and giving instructions to families on isolation, that type of thing.”

Asked when Yerger experienced the peak of the pandemic, Widel named October, November and December of last year but its effects on students have lingered. “I think overall, the pandemic has affected the mental health of students a lot, and we're glad to have the school-based health center for referrals for mental health and also for physical health,” she said.

The center she is referring to here is the Bobcat Clinic, located on the campus of Hope High School, which opened in 2019 in the former Family and Consumer Science cottage. The clinic offers medical and behavioral services and can do so with more convenience for working parents of students who enroll: “It saves parents trips to the doctor. We bus the child to the health center,” Widel said.

Enrollment can be accomplished upon the submission of completed information packets that can be obtained at any Hope Public School.

As of now, Widel has been involved in presentations to classes on such matters as e-cigarette smoking prevention. Representatives from Arkansas Children’s Hospital made a presentation on how to assemble nutritious meals on a budget. She looks forward to when she and the students can get going on their garden, which at interview time had yet to be planted.

Widel said that in the future she is hoping to learn more Spanish to better communicate with Yerger students who speak that language.