Can I refer to myself as RN or the school nurse

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Hi all, I am a RN with an ADN degree and accepted a position as a nursing assistant because a school nurse has to have at least a bachelors. So my question and concern is can I refer to myself as nurse so and so or the nurse?

Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

Before accepting the job I would review tasks very carefully. If you are working as the nursing assistant and being paid as such then be sure that you are doing only those tasks. In my state the school nurse requires RS and BSN with additional cert for CSN. There could theoretically be an additional nurse in the office to help with treatments and meds and such that has their RN but no BSN/CSN. If that were the case in my office (which for the record, would make me oh so happy... just saying in case the fates of life are reading this) I'd refer to that person also as "the nurse".

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Specializes in kids.

EEEK, be sure they are willing to accept the limitations of your role. Sounds like they want to have their cake and eat it too. If you are hired as an NA you CANNOT (I believe) do things that an RN would do). So that means you cannot fill in for sickness, cover the RN when she is busy. Check with your BON. I'm guessing they just don't want to pay you.

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Before accepting the job I would review tasks very carefully. If you are working as the nursing assistant and being paid as such then be sure that you are doing only those tasks. In my state the school nurse requires RS and BSN with additional cert for CSN. There could theoretically be an additional nurse in the office to help with treatments and meds and such that has their RN but no BSN/CSN. If that were the case in my office (which for the record, would make me oh so happy... just saying in case the fates of life are reading this) I'd refer to that person also as "the nurse".

But even though she IS a nurse, her job title is not "additional helper PD nurse", it's "NA".

I don't know. I think it could bite her in the booty. Hard.

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Specializes in Occ. Hlth, Education, ICU, Med-Surg.
Its suppose to be but not in this position

RN will be your scope of practice if something should happen and you get sued...you'll be held to the higher standard despite your job title

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Word of advice - make sure you have your own . A policy that is yours and has your interest in mind.

I plug malpractice insurance to everyone regardless, but for some, I plug harder.

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Specializes in School nurse.

In NJ you cannot work below your license level. Be very careful.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

This just sounds too weird to me. I agree with Nutmegge....I think they're just trying to cheap out, overrate a position, and get an underpaid RN on staff.

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Run away! Run away!

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Specializes in Pedi.
The NA position requires the applicant to take a 6 week course at the local community college or be a LPN or RN. It was and still is a bit confusing to me. So if something was to ever go down I'm the RN in the assistant role and I hope I wouldn't be responsible for whatever went wrong. What you all think? Do you agree? Or should I run?

Well, here's a scenario for you. Let's say the nurse is for some reason not in the building temporarily. A teacher comes down yelling that a kid in her classroom is seizing. Little Johnny has epilepsy and diastat kept in the nurse's office. As an assistant, you are not allowed to administer diastat so you can do nothing but call 911 and monitor the child. When EMS arrives, they want to know why diastat wasn't given for a kid who's been seizing for 10 min. Say the kid has some long term issues from this prolonged seizure that wasn't treated promptly. Your license says you can act and administer the diastat but your job description says you can't. Too much of a gray area in my opinion.

I don't see why any nurse would ever accept a nursing assistant position. The pay must be crap compared to RN pay.

As far as referring to yourself as the school nurse goes, I'd say no. You're not the school nurse, another nurse holds that position.

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Specializes in CMSRN.

I'm not sure that's a position I would want to be in. Of course that's also why I would never want to work in a "no code" facility where I couldn't perform CPR and could only call 911 for a code situation.

Separately, is the NA job anywhere close in pay to what you can make as an RN in another facility. I know my local school system has "health aides" and they make MUCH less than an RN would. Just a thought.

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The hours works for me and my family and I was not getting any hours at my previous job, something is better than nothing when I'm the main provider and my goal is to be a school nurse

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The hours works for me and my family and I was not getting any hours at my previous job, something is better than nothing when I'm the main provider and my goal is to be a school nurse

Okay then be careful and get malpractice!

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