Nurse vs teacher, I choose NURSE!

Wave Watcher · Dec 28, 2012

Funny but I would have become a teacher instead of a nurse if I had to do it all over again. Don't get me wrong....I love my job and my kiddos! I was very lucky with obtaining my job. I worked as a prn agency nurse for metro schools here in my city and I also worked for city schools outside Nashville for about 2 yrs. My goal was to be hired on full time. I kept in contact with one of the nurse managers along the way and she is the one who let me know there was an opening. I was hired because she knew me from my prn work and I did a good job. I was lucky. It is VERY hard to get into school nursing. Many states require a BSN and some areas require an MSN.

I do not have experience in peds or ER. My experience is 1 yr floor nursing on an Ortho/Neuro floor and then of course my 2yrs school nursing prn. I dropped floor nursing and focused ONLY on school nursing for 2 yrs......that was a plus when being hired.

Good luck!

dfs1961 · Dec 29, 2012

I have 5 years of cardiac step-down, med surg experience. It wasn't that hard to break into school nursing. I subbed for the past year, did a good job, and then applied when someone retired. I think the hard thing about breaking into school nursing is the fact that you have to wait for someone to die or retire before a job opens up.....I love my job and don't miss the old one. And I would never be a teacher - I think it is a much harder job than school nurse!

Nurse ABC · Dec 30, 2012

I was hired after a yr of acute care experience. I took a pay cut. I enjoyed the kids, the lower stress, and the schedule was nice but I got tired of it really fast. I found out through a friend of my Mom's they were hiring so I went for it but it was never an ultimate dream-I was just tired of all the forced overtime at the hospital. A good way to get your foot in the door is by subbing. I had to have a BSN and a school nurse certification so call your local school board to see what they're requirements are. I never found school nursing "exciting" though. Enjoyable at times sure. I think you need good assessment skills because you are the only medical person in the building and will get any and all emergencies but thankfully those don't happen often! Good luck!

lawrence4656 · Jan 1, 2013

I love my job for the family time I get. Summers and holidays off are pretty awesome. I love the few times that I do make a difference in a child's life but the job has become pretty frustrating to me. My office is used as a "dumping" ground to send students when the teacher needs a break, and more than anything I wanted to be a nurse and this job does not make me feel like one. I'm the only nurse on the entire campus and it's beyond frustrating being the only medical professional and it's hard sometimes to keep the peace when they expect you to do things out of your scope. Pay is absolutely terrible compared to say working at a hospital. If you really enjoy young kids, then it might be right up your alley. But if you enjoy performing all your nursing skills, be prepared to mainly handle immunizations, dishing out ADHD meds, and vision/hearing/spinal screenings. And it is very difficult to get into. My job literally fell into my lap when my daughter was only 4 months old and my husband was working 12 hour nights so it truly was a Blessing. But I am getting burned out. It will probably depend on where you work too. I only had a month of surgical work under my belt and was hired as an LVN. (Another plus was that the job was so laid back that I had time to work towards my RN, which I now have.) As long as my children are small, I will hang on to this job as long as I can unless something happens. The way I see it, I can always do PRN work in an area I really love on my breaks. I also agree with everybody else that it's easier to get hired on I'd you start subbing for them.