North Star’s Odlin top Alaska school nurse

“Her passion for school nursing is reflected in her continued efforts to improve health services and support students’ academic success. Michelle remains dedicated to promoting health, safety, and well-being in the Kodiak community, bridging healthcare and education,” the association wrote.

Odlin’s path to the busy North Star nurse’s office began early, when nursing became a childhood goal.

“I knew I wanted to be a nurse when I was in fourth grade, and then I knew I wanted to be a school nurse when I was in high school,” she said.

Her mom was director of a New Jersey childcare center growing up, and Michelle worked as a teaching assistant and served as the center’s art teacher.

“I knew the school setting was the perfect place to do those two passions, and my backup plan was art therapy if I couldn’t get through nursing school,” she said.

But she did make it, through one of the top programs in the country, earning a  Registered Nurse Degree at Rutgers University College of Nursing.

She arrived in Kodiak with her husband, commercial fisherman Makoto Odlin, in 2013, and worked at Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center for just over two years before starting full time at the school in 2015. The job is everything she wanted it to be.

“Oh my gosh, I am so passionate about school nursing. It’s so unique because you get to work with students, especially in the elementary setting, for up to six years and I’m able to teach them skills that can last their whole lives.

“Like if a kiddo comes in and says ‘I have a headache,’ we’ll start with water, we’ll start with stress and, ‘Did you eat breakfast today?’ instead of going straight to medication. 

“I love teaching those life skills, like the importance of sleep, the importance of getting outside and exercise. Being able to impact and build a relationship with somebody for six years is so powerful,” she said.

Teaching kids from tough backgrounds how to deal with their emotions is an especially challenging and rewarding part of her vocation, she said.

“So that means like being aware that kiddos who experience trauma at a young age, their brains develop differently, and the most important thing for kiddos that have experienced trauma is to have trusting adult relationships,” she said. “Being one of those adults is so important, building that trust and then being able to again teach them about those really important health things is my passion, and I love it.” 

Odlin said working with district teachers and community medical practitioners adds depth to everyone’s understanding of childhood health issues.

“It’s constant collaboration with teachers because as I’m navigating kiddos in my office, I’m trying to differentiate between whether they are here for a medical concern, or for more of an emotional concern. There’s such an overlap. Headaches and tummy aches can often be related to anxiety and stress.

“And so collaborating with teachers to ask, ‘What’s going on with this kid?’ Did something just happen in the classroom, or are they having trouble with their friends? To be able to differentiate is so helpful. 

“We work together to implement any kind of accommodations that kiddos need and setting up really good plans for them. Whether it’s unique seating that they need, additional time or additional breaks or assessments, that’s why that level of collaboration is so important. And of course with complex medical things, I’m a huge advocate for those students,” she said.

Her ability to work collaboratively led to a local leadership role during the COVID-19 pandemic. She led the district’s efforts to coordinate care, including contact tracing, testing, and coordinating with local medical agencies and the ad hoc Kodiak Medical Advisory Committee. She was instrumental in keeping Kodiak schools open and helping ensure in-person learning continued.

“I just felt this huge burden, because the schools are the biggest organization in our town that has indoor mixing of people, so the schools had the highest chance of spread.

“And because I used to work at the hospital when I first started my nursing career here in Kodiak, I knew how fragile our hospital was when it came to the number of beds that we had, the number of staff trained to take care of ICU-level patients, the number of ventilators we had.  I knew all of that, and I knew how hard it was to get patients off the island.

“So I was really worried about the stability of our hospital. And just like feeling this huge burden in protecting our town in a responsible way. We had a doctor from every major clinic in town, representing the hospital, the public health nurses, the Coast Guard and the Emergency Operations Committee. It was such an amazing community effort, to navigate all of our COVID policies and procedures.

“Every decision that we made going through COVID, when it came to masking and quarantines and exclusions from school, all of that was based on the skills these different medical organizations had to help us navigate. That was something I was really proud that we were able to,” Odlin explained.

There are six school nurses in the Kodiak Island Borough School District. Each school nurse also is assigned a village school to mentor. Odlin had Larsen Bay before it closed, and currently is school nurse for Port Lions. 

Her next project is developing a 90-minute training for fifth-graders on the dangers of vaping. Fifth-graders need the information heading into middle school, where exposure to vaping increases greatly, she said.

“It’s important to explain to them how addictive it is. That the vaping substances, a tiny little cartridge of clear liquid that people think is just flavored water, right? It’s the nicotine equivalent to like three packs of cigarettes. We’re really trying to teach the kids the importance of realizing that, and how addictive it is. It’s like a trap. 

“There are ways that kids get ahold of them through online sources, and surveys show they actually get them from family members. Some parents just think, oh, it’s better than smoking cigarettes, it’s just flavored water, and they don’t understand the chemicals and the toxins and the dangers associated with it,” Odlin said.

Besides the Alaska School Nurses Association award, Odlin was presented with a resolution from the Alaska Legislature. The resolution describes her leadership initiatives. 

“Michelle’s passion for school nursing is evident in her ongoing commitment to improving health services and supporting student success. Her dedication to bridging healthcare and education has had a lasting impact on the Kodiak community. 

“Michelle is truly the heart of our school, providing exceptional medical care and invaluable social-emotional support. She approaches every situation — whether it be an illness, injury, or a child in distress—with calmness, love, and unwavering support. Her ability to comfort and care for students in their most vulnerable moments sets her apart as an extraordinary school nurse,” wrote North Star Principal Audra Morrow.