applying for school nurse position...words of advice?

[LanaBanana]

I've been a nurse for a couple of years now and all my experience is in ICU step-down and med-surg. But the 12 hour shifts and sheer physicalness of the job are killing me and I've started looking for other options. A friend of mine is 1 of 2 school nurses in the district and she is 99% sure there is going to be an opening for next school year and is trying to help me get in. I am so excited about the possibility but scared to death at the same time because I feel unprepared for parts of the job. Anybody have advice about this? The current nurse is going on maternity leave at the end of April so I may be able to sub for the last month of school and see how it goes.

[bergren]

There have been a lot of threads on this in the past. Do a search of this forum and see what we have suggested in the past.

School nursing is a huge change from what you have been doing and I think subbing is a great way to figure out if school nursing is for you. Warning, it is not a piece of cake, and a whole culture change from acute adult care.

There are many many other options out there for you that may build on your adult and acute skill set - occ health, quality improvement, infection control, same day surgery, nursing education....... Look at this as a second chance and don't take the first opening that pops in front of you.

Good luck!!! Tell us what you end up doing.

[linda1959]

I recently got started in school nursing. I have lots of peds experience but had not worked in 9 years, so this is what I did:

I took some online pediatric continuing ed. classes that might help me in a school setting. www.nurse.com has deal where for $35.00 you have access to MANY 1 and 1.5 CEU courses such as Diabetes in the School Setting, Obesity in Children, Lice etc.

I also did a search for "School Nurse Workshops". I took one at Monmouth County in the Fall. It was a few hours on a Sat. and reviewed pertinent NJ regs. as well as some "what to expect stuff".

You might want to consider a basic pediatric physical assessment class.

I listed all of these education items on a sheet of paper and gave them to the interviewer.

Good Luck!