Do you interact with students outside of the office?

I don't, but I wouldn't have the time for it at this point in my life. After work I bust outta here and my kids get home from school 10 minutes after I get home. Maybe when they are older and I don't have to go straight home after work. I know there are tons of opportunities at my school as far as helping at sporting events (crowd control, keeping score) or other clubs.

Our school has a lot of opportunities to help with after school activities. I haven't been able to yet since mine kids are still little, but once my daughter is old enough to participate, I will definitely be there! I would start by seeing if you could help out with any existing clubs.

I don't really interact either. But I know my school would welcome it if I wanted to. Similar to the other posters, I have family commitments that take precedence (and I've noticed at my school that teachers with kids are less likely to take part in after school activities, too).

If I were going to do something, I would probably volunteer to coach a sport. Not directly nurse related, but health related. But, we also don't have a lot of extracurricular activities.

Sorry, not much help. But I think wanting to get more involved in admirable!

Not in a voluntary way you speak of. My daughter does play volleyball, though, both for the school team and a year-round competitive club. There are 2 other students from our school who also play in her club at different age levels.

When we are all at the same big tournaments together I definitely take my daughter's break times to see if those girls are playing & I'll go watch them. I admit to becoming quite attached to one of them in particular & already have plans to follow her high school career & keep up with her personally. She's just one of those few kids that I've gotten attached to. She calls me her other mother.

During the school team season I do serve as "van mom" for the team as well as line judge or score keeper. And I treat volleyball boo-boos prn since I'm there. I learned quickly to pack a few first aid supplies in my purse for games along with the Diastat for 1 of our players who parents didn't always make the games.

As a "single mom" most of the time (hubby travels) I don't go looking for extra projects outside of work hours. I tend to stay busy from dusk til dawn as it is. But if i didn't I'd probably start up the employee fitness program that our principal has been hinting at for 2 years where I could lead a workout and diet effort for our faculty/staff. Then I'd become a BLS instructor & teach classes to staff and students in my free time.

I am involved in a couple of Girl Scout troops. Both of my girls did GS from K-12, I became friends with a few troop leaders at my school and I help out with all the health/first aid related troop activities. Love to camp and hike so I also am "First aid/camp trained" adult if they need one to go along on camping trips.

I help with show choir and travel with them to their competitions. I have choreographed a big chunk of their show this year- Disney Villain songs.

I also am part of the"pit crew" for our competitive marching band. The competitive bands in our state march drum and bugle corp style, so we have a "pit" with auxiliary percussion, bass guitar (my daughter) and keyboard. Someone has to help the kids load all of the equipment on and off the field. My son also marches (bass drum).

I will stick with show choir after my kids graduate. Not sure about marching band as it is a LOT of travelling on the weekends. Each competition is at least 1-2 hours (one way) from us so it's a lot of miles on the car and late nights during the fall for us.

It helps that my kids go to the school I work at, so it's an easy transition for me to do after school stuff- especially when they are involved. :)

I just started going to the school's Safety Committee which makes up parents, staff, and students. I enjoyed the last meeting a lot and I'm looking to get involved with more school activities. I feel left out since I'm not a school employee and a lot of staff and students don't know who I am. People only know me until they need to use me.

Since one of them is my womb nugget, YES!

I run blood drives, 3 a year. I sometimes attend SADD. I just participated in 2 days of Challenge Day. I go on the college trips and the Hersheypark trip. I am going to watch the guys in the Special Olympics in May.

Yep.

I'm not involved, it's the gym teacher, but my (elementary) school has a jump rope club, walking club - both of those are during lunch recess. After school there is a program called Run the Halls. The kids track their distance & get medals for half and full marathons. Pretty self explanatory, but I'd be happy to answer any questions.

I help out with after school events and programs, not organized clubs or sports. If the opportunity came up, I would since my kids are older and outta the house for the most part.

Hello Kittery,

There's a few things you could do if you want to get a bit more interaction with your school's students. I'm not sure how much your school's administration is doing but here are a few ideas...

1. Wellness or "healthy living" (this could include things like nutrition, physical activity, mental health, etc.);

2. Managing your stress (it seems all I hear is this new buzzword "mindfulness", which I relate to relaxation or meditation techniques);

3. Angry moments (recognizing what trigger someone's anger and how to channel it appropriately);

If you're looking for something outside your role as a school nurse, how about looking into providing basic First Aid training for the students? If you are a trained instructor, I am sure many would enjoy learning these skills. You could even learn how to teach that (looks good on a performance review). Depending on the age of the students, you could even push this all the way to EADs.

If you really want to challenge yourself, how about tackling suicide intervention or prevention? Although this might not be appropriate for all ages.

I'm sure if I think about it I can come up with a few more but you get the idea. It's "health" related, but on a slightly broader scale.

Dany