Can new Grads become school Nurse?

[beatrice1]

Is it possible for a Brand new Grad to become a school Nurse? And is it required to have a BA?

I am a new Grad and would love to do this eventually, however I would think it is important to get more assessing skills and experience.

Can anyone give me advice as to how I can prepare for this in my future?

Thanks,

Bea

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

we've tackled this on here a few times:

https://allnurses.com/school-nursing/advice-entering-school-491789.html

https://allnurses.com/school-nursing/questions-about-becoming-507240.html

The overall is that yes... it has been done that a nurse will go right from NS into a school setting. Is it wise? In my humble opinion, no. You are usually by yourself and unless you have a solid background, you will quickly find that you are in over your head. If a student comes in your office and says their chest hurts you need the clinical skill set to determine if it's a muscle pull, aching from chest cold, actual cardiac event, or baloney to get out of class for a while. If a student is having a medical crisis, you need to be able to manage it until the ambulance comes. You may have a student that gets straight cathed several times a day, in a small bathroom, sitting on a toilet. You may have a student that gets feedings. you may have a new diabetic student and a frantic parent looking to you for guidance. You also need the feeling of confidence in your own skills that can only come with experience.

As far as your degree to get into school nursing - it vaires state to state. My state requires a BSN with certification if school nursing. Some states require only RN, some require only LPN and some don't employ "nurses" at all - opting for "health aids" if they even bother with that role...

Do some searching on what your state requirements are. In the mean time, experience does not have to be peds or icu or ER, these are helpful but med surg nursing can get you there as well.

[Heidi the nurse, BSN, RN]

To me the biggest thing is the need for an understanding of the educational system. You could be a nurse for a thousand years and really need to re-focus everything when you go into school nursing. The agency I worked for sent me to the local peidatric neuro clinic for someone on leave for a couple weeks and I couldn't understand why I kept getting all these perfectly good orders returned for verification by the local school nurses. Now I know why - because I am delegating these orders to unlicensed folk and everything needs to be spelled out. And you can't just call down to the clinic and get a verbal order.

And that just medication administration. 504's, special education rules, emergency care plans and IHP's, FAPE, FERPA, etc etc. That's as important as knowing when a kids is in the health room because of "math-itis".