School RN salary

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What can i expect for a school position? Do they usually pay good?

Specializes in School Nursing and Dialysis.
Thanks for sharing that information. How long have you been doing it? I'm in Illinois and back in school for my BSN and I've been toying with the idea of obtaining a Type 73.

I say go for it. Fifteen years as a school nurse but the first 15 in the hospital setting. I am so thankful for my education and my job. It is nice to get up every day and enjoy going to work. The students make it all worth while.

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I say go for it. Fifteen years as a school nurse but the first 15 in the hospital setting. I am so thankful for my education and my job. It is nice to get up every day and enjoy going to work. The students make it all worth while.

I already have a degree in exceptional education, so I have an idea about educational settings, and I won't have to take the additional classes.-- Are school nurses with the 73 certificate placed on the same salary track as teachers? or can they expect more?

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Specializes in School Nursing and Dialysis.
I already have a degree in exceptional education, so I have an idea about educational settings, and I won't have to take the additional classes.-- Are school nurses with the 73 certificate placed on the same salary track as teachers? or can they expect more?

That's great! It sounds like you only have to complete the school nurse internship and the state testing. Some districts do not place a certified school nurse on the teacher scale. And others will place you on the teacher's scale but with no years of experience for the salary. Let's face it. Some districts do not even have school nurses. I was lucky in that my district gave me 10 years experience on the pay scale. I will make no more than any other teacher with the same education credits.

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HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!. I don't know about the rest of the country, but expect to work a second job to make up for the cut in pay. Our system pays 29K a year.before taxes

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"I'm in Illinois and back in school for my BSN and I've been toying with the idea of obtaining a Type 73"

The transition is easier if you take Educational Psychology and Exceptional Child as part of your BSN course work - see if they can substitute for the social science requirements. The content is required for the School Nurse courses.

There are 4 universities in IL that offer the Type 73 certification:

University of Illinois- Chicago - (online classes)

http://www.uic.edu/nursing/schoolnursing/

Open houses: 9/28/05, 1/26/06, 3/9/06, 4/6/06

http://www.uic.edu/nursing/schoolnursing/openhouses.htm

Southern IL in Edwardsville http://www.siue.edu/NURSING/programs/school_nurse.html

Milliken

http://www.millikin.edu/education/schoolnurse.html

National Louis University

http://www3.nl.edu/academics/nce/programs/curricinst/schoolnurse.cfm

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.
"I'm in Illinois and back in school for my BSN and I've been toying with the idea of obtaining a Type 73"

The transition is easier if you take Educational Psychology and Exceptional Child as part of your BSN course work - see if they can substitute for the social science requirements. The content is required for the School Nurse courses.

There are 4 universities in IL that offer the Type 73 certification:

University of Illinois- Chicago - (online classes)

http://www.uic.edu/nursing/schoolnursing/

Open houses: 9/28/05, 1/26/06, 3/9/06, 4/6/06

http://www.uic.edu/nursing/schoolnursing/openhouses.htm

Southern IL in Edwardsville http://www.siue.edu/NURSING/programs/school_nurse.html

Milliken

http://www.millikin.edu/education/schoolnurse.html

National Louis University

http://www3.nl.edu/academics/nce/programs/curricinst/schoolnurse.cfm

Thank you so much for the information!

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Where i live the school nurse must travel between 6 different schools and makes 10$ an hour, it almost scares me what type of nurse is watching over our kids and thinks that is a good wage for an RN.

I work as a substitue nurse in Virgina. The pay is $19.50/hour. We help with state mandated screenings, and of course sub in the clinic. It works for me and I enjoy it. It can be extremely hectic. I like being on the same schedule as my kids.

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I recently applied for a school nurse position in So. CA. I have 20 years experience in acute care (hospital) nursing. I obtained my BSN in 2004. The schools in CA put nurses on the same certified salery schedule as teachers and they give you a temporary certification that is good for 5 years (with the BSN) then you have to complete an educational program for school nurse certification during those five years. I was told it would amount to 46 units (that could be costly).

Anyhow the starting salary for a BS with no experience was $41,495 per year for a 7 hour day 184 days per year (no weekends or holidays of course) which worked out to about $33/hour. Each year the salary steps up $1361 up to eleven years experience which was $56,753. Then once you had 30 semster hours beyond your BS you are in a whole new step catagory. ranging from 43.569 to 61,488. Usually you can find the salary schedules for individual districts on the internet.

Currently I earn $32/hr on day shift but I get time and half for the last four hours bringing my average up to $41/hr. At full time I guess I work about 150 days per year. I was really tempted to take the job because I've had so much trouble getting reliable child care for my school age child. At first I thought they would start me at step 11 for my 20 years experience which was $56,753 but then I was informed I would only get 1 years credit for the one year I had worked since getting the BS.

Well I couldn't survive on that much of a decrease and I found it insulting that a 20 year experienced nurse was being started out at the same salary as a BSN new grad with 1 year experience (who would you rather have looking after your kids?)

On the plus side though they get the same retirement benefits as teachers which if I put in 20 years and retired at 63 would be about 50% of my last years salary per year plus medical. And the medical dental benefits for family would have cost me about 1/2 the cost as the same HMO my hospital gives me or I could choose Kaiser for free.

By the way in Ca school nurses are responsible for 800-900 students and travel around between 2-3 schools except the High school has a designated nurse (still could be 700-900 students).

I guess my advice would be if your a BSN grad and your interested in school nursing get into it early because the retirement benefits alone could be worth half million or more easily. Also if your have a masters and are a pediatric nurse practitioner they start at 48 k and go up to 74K.

Still Looking for that perfect job...

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Well, here in northern Texas, close to Dallas, the pay is much lower than Ca, prob bc cost of living is a little lower. The starting pay is on the teacher's pay scale, anywhere from 34,000 to $38,000 with most not honoring your hospital experience. I found out today that my salary is spread out over 12 months rather than 13 months meaning I will not be paid for the next August. I will have to figure out what I will have to do before summer rolls around. I left a $55,000/year job but it was much more stressful and the schedule didn't work out with me working nights and weekends and summers! I love my junior high even though I wish the salary was better.

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