Any school nurses out there?

betheveh · May 2012

I am a RN who left my job in the ER while on maternity leave as they offered a voluntary layoff. I've known I'd ideally change fields once I had a family as I don't want to work holidays and weekends etc. however I made great money nd 3 12's

I am interviewing for a school nurse job which I've always been interested in but I'm curious how the schedule and pay will work for my family. I want to be home as much as possible as he will only be 9 months old come September. He position is a 0.8 fte.

Summers and holidays off sound great but is it worth working 5 days a week and for less pay?

Share your experience. Tia

CrazyToast · May 2012

I'm pretty sure it's a certificated position, and the salary schedule should be listed somewhere public.

A .8 FTE is equivalent to working 4 days/week.

(I'm a teacher...who was trained in WA, where I grew up, before moving to CA)

ETA: did you get salary info or a projected schedule you'd have to work?

alli2672 · May 2012

I had a friend who was a school nurse. It was a busier job than she expected. She would sometimes see 40-50 kids a day to dispense medication, check sugars, give insulin, bandage scrapes, etc.

As I recall, the biggest hurdle for her was paperwork. Every encounter she had needed to be documented (of course). She was also in charge of filing and being responsible for the kids emergency contact information.

groovygrl · May 2012

School nursing, particularly in public schools but also private, can be a lot of work depending on the student population & age group (older the kids, the more mental health stuff you'll be dealing with..., some schools will have more social type issues to deal with, etc) and there are a lot of kids with major health issues mainstreamed into schools now so it depends on the makeup of the school. It can be really rewarding if you're doing it because you want to be in that setting & working with kids and focusing on population health and prevention in addition to the individual care, plus some teaching the classroom and don't forget the staff who also will be in there asking questions and whatnot . Beginning of the year there is a lot of documentation stuff- immunizations & follow up on that, physicals if needed, collecting info on all the kids who have meds, chronic diseases that need monitoring, etc etc etc. So expect some admin type duties. Many nurses love the autonomy but some do not like not having all the support people right at their fingertips like in the hospital, it really depends on your personality & what type of environment you like.

In my opinion, the hours & perks of school nursing when you have small kids at home are worth the potential difference in pay if you're able to afford it but that is just me.

Re the pay, you have to take the hours into consideration, so I wouldn't compare just hte annual salaries- break it down into how many actual hours or days are worked to compare. Then remember that like teachers, many school nurses take on summer work of some sort to supplement their pay so that is an option too and can be part time & still get the benefit of having summers off.

I'm not a school nurse fwiw but have worked a bit with them... I think it will be different for everyone but you should talk to some nurses in your district/area esp in the level of school you'll be at to make sure you have a clear picture of what the role entails.

Any school nurses out there?

Re: Any school nurses out there?

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