Pittsburgh City Schools nurse practitioner Juanita Hogan of Observatory Hill seems almost embarrassed that she's been named winner of the 2009 School Nurse Excellence Award for the Western Pennsylvania region.

The award, given by the Pennsylvania Association of School Nurses and Practitioners in six regions, automatically qualifies her for the 2010 PASNAP nurse of the year competition, and the winner of that title goes on to compete for the same honor nationally.

"This is really humbling for me. If I had another way to make a living, the work I do, I would do for free," Ms. Hogan said during a recent telephone interview. She first became a school nurse in 1992 after working as a head nurse in a cardiac unit at Western Pennsylvania Hospital.

"I had a calling to come and work in this school district."

According to one of the principals she works for -- she's assigned to care for 900 students combined at Allegheny Traditional Academy; Pittsburgh Manchester K-8; St. Cyril's of Alexandria in Brighton Heights; and Greater Allen Christian Academy in Manchester -- she donates a good portion of her free time already.

"You know how you used to be able to call your doctor and he'd run to your house? She's like that," said Viola Burgess, principal of Allegheny Traditional Academy.

And when Ms. Hogan is at one of the other campuses or out of town on union business -- more on that later -- she always makes sure Mrs. Burgess has her e-mail address and phone number.

"She says 'Please use the number.' That speaks volumes," Mrs. Burgess said. "I've never had a nurse do that either. ...

"When it comes to children, when we're talking about children at risk or unsuccessful, she wants to be around the table. She says 'Let's make sure there's nothing medically wrong with the child.' ... When a red flag comes up, be it from a parent, teacher, administrator, nurse Hogan wants to know."

In short, Mrs. Burgess said, "the compassion she has for children, the way she treats them, you would think these are her biological children."

And, said principal Theresa Cherry of Manchester K-8, the feeling is reciprocated.

"They love her," Dr. Cherry said of the students. "That's the problem -- they always want to see her. She makes everything better and not just externally. She helps heal the mind sometimes."

Ms. Hogan, who has a 17-year-old son of her own, said she's just committed "to making sure [the students]' future is better than mine was. If they're healthy, they can learn."

And it's not always easy for the school nurses -- in the city schools, they're all nurse practitioners -- to keep their charges healthy.

"It's all types of complex health care," Ms. Hogan said. "We see children who have heart problems or who have diabetes; children who have had cancer, who have had organ transplants. Everything you see in hospitals, we see in public settings. I have kids with asthma and everything else in addition to minor emergencies, your scrapes and bruises. ...

"We do our own public school exams. This provides more holistic care, more preventive care. ... That's what President Obama's [health] plan is based on."

For the competition, school nurses must be nominated by a colleague, and then submit applications. Those papers are reviewed by the region representative and members of the executive board. Ms. Hogan was nominated by Ann Hoist, of Hampton, another nurse practitioner in the city school district who has gotten to know her at staff meetings and in-service days and while giving sports physicals.

As Mrs. Burgess noted and Ms. Hoist wrote in her nomination form, Ms. Hogan goes beyond the school day to help children. Among her many extracurricular activities:

• Volunteered at Allegheny Traditional to help with the Pittsburgh Influenza Prevention Project, a research project with the Center for Minority Health of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

• Worked on a team at Allegheny Traditional on the Healthy Kids 2010 project, rewriting physical education and dietary components of a new curriculum.

• Sits on the national program and policy council of the American Federation of Teachers and is co-chair of the AFT's school health subcommittee.

• Sits on the executive board of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, representing all support staff.

But above all are the students.

"I look at the kids' Web sites, the gang Web sites," Ms. Hogan said. "I listen to their music. I watch their movies. I want to understand what they're thinking and feeling so I can communicate with them."

That extra effort once enabled her to help a 12-year-old child who showed up for a school physical dressed primarily in red, including his underwear. Another nurse told the boy he looked nice in his ensemble, but Ms. Hogan saw beyond the coordinated outfit.

"I asked 'What gang are you in?' and he told me he was in a gang and was shot at on the way to school," she said. "I said, 'Tell me about gang activity.' He said it was not his choice. His father was a gang member. His uncles were in the gang; his cousins were in the gang, so automatically he was in.

"He was a high honor roll student and no one knew he was in the gang."

No one, that is, except Ms. Hogan.

"What we were able to do was intervene for him, get him support because he didn't want to be in the gang but didn't want to go against his family. We got him help," she said.

It is because of work like that that Mrs. Burgess says Ms. Hogan is "in her own category" as a school nurse.

"If you want to categorize it, with 'stellar' being the best," the principal said, "she's stellar plus."