Eileen Obata has worked as a nurse in Gilroy schools
since 1979
n By Heather Bremner
Staff Writer
Gilroy – Twenty-nine years ago a pregnant Eileen Obata decided to trade her commute to a Salinas hospital for a nearby position as a school nurse.
The career change entailed earning a school nurse credential and eventually a master’s degree, but Obata quickly learned that she’d slipped into the perfect position.
“I just fell in love with it,” she said. “I just loved the teaching aspect of it and the prevention.”
Now the Gilroy Unified School District nurse who has worked in Gilroy schools since 1979, Obata was recently appointed chairman of the School Health Clinics of Santa Clara County board of directors.
As chief of the board, which operates six school-based health clinics throughout the county including the South Valley Middle School-based Gilroy Neighborhood Health Clinic, Obata will chair the meetings, oversee the school-based clinics and attend the executive and financial committee meetings.
With more than 20 years experience in the field, she has spent her career advising parents and children on health issues and implementing state mandated vision and hearing screening for elementary and middle school students.
The Morgan Hill resident spent about 20 years teaching Lamaze classes to pregnant teens at Mt. Madonna High School. She also counsels adolescents discussing topics including sexual abuse, drugs and alcohol and teen pregnancy prevention, work that Obata is quick to downplay.
“That’s just the day in the life of school nurse,” she said.
As district nurse for about 14 years, Obata has seen and heard her fair share. And while “a lot of people think we just put Band-Aids on,” she explained that the job entails much more.
In addition to dealing with the health and welfare of the SVMS teens, Obata manages the health services department, oversees four nurses and nine health clerks and ensures that the necessary supplies are staffed.
And although many years have passed since the longtime nurse embarked on her career, she has seen little has change in the minds of children.
“I think kids are kids,” Obata said. “Adolescent issues have pretty much been the same since I’ve been working here in ’79.”
