Health room aide

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Hi! I have been a creeper here awhile and have learned so much! Today, I got news that I was not hired in my home district where I have been subbing for 2 years even though I was told that I was wanted by the principal of the school. I have been crying for 10 hours and now I am ready to move on. Can someone explain a health room aide to me? I have found open positions for one but our district does not use them so I am unsure of what it entails. What is the pay usually like compared to the CSN? I work in a NICU now and could not take a giant pay cut. Thanks so much in advance!

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

I am sorry you did not get hired after working there for 2 years. Did they hire a health room aide instead of you as a CSN? I am not clear on this.

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No in our district, we do not have health room aides. Each school has their own nurse and that is it. But upon researching new jobs in other districts to gain some experience, I came across a health room aide position and just wondered what that actually was since their description isn't that clear.

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That is interesting as it seems like the position would be posted as a nurse instead of an aide if they use only nurses. I work for a large pediatric hospital that uses aides for individual schools and has RN's over them for the district. Maybe they are changing their modus operandus (spelling?)

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I am sorry if I am being unclear. In my current district each school has a nurse. In a different district, they have posted for a health room aide but the description says it is an RN position

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

if i had to wager a guess, i'd say that you are in a state that requires a csn for your school nurse, but allows a secondary nurse on campus to have an RN - they're just packaging that as a health aide - i don't love the verbiage, but it may be worth looking into. Just be sure you're not working below your title.

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In my district in Pennsylvania, our "aides""are RN's, some of which actually have a CSN but are not employed as such. Pennsylvania requires 1CSN for every 1500 students so the schools fill in with "aides" so each school has nurse coverage without paying nurse wages. Our aides make much less and only get paid hourly so over holidays and breaks they do not get paid. It is good experience if you can afford it. It is what I did while looking for a full time position. Not sure if that is what you are talking about or not. Just make sure you know the pay and benefits, if any and make sure it is something you can afford to do.

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Interesting. I do not have a background in school nursing. When I hear "health room aid," it sounds like the job of an unlicensed assistive personal, who might work one on one with a special needs child.

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Thanks everyone!

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Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

My school doesn't use health office aides, its just me, but from other posts on here I've seen, if an office has a health aide, they usually take care of the hands on things like sick kids, daily meds, first aide to injuries, etc. and the RN then does more administrative things like 504's, IEP's, goes to meetings, immunization tracking, ect. Weather or not the health aide is licensed is up to the district I suppose. It wouldn't hurt to check into it. More than likely the pay will be less than need, sadly. Sorry you didn't get the job. That sucks since you have been subbing there.

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