Don't jump on me! But i'm bored already

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I just started as a school nurse at the beginning of this month and I'm already bored of my position. The days feel so long even though I only work 7-345 because there isn't much for me to do but see students throughout the day and then organize my office. I hate to sound like I'm complaining. But I really do hope this feeling goes away soon. I left my old job in LTC because of potential burnout and being cancelled left and right every week. Now I miss the excitement from the residents and actually being busy. Weird, right? I'm just hoping someone can lend a helpful word of advice. I'm also pregnant so this job is perfect for the baby schedule wise. As I'm off every weekend, holidays, whenever the kids are off, snow days, and 6 weeks in the summer and its all paid. I just don't know what to do. I'm sitting in my office now as I type this. Also my previous schedule was 32 hours 7-330 so I also feel like my days are so long now due to commuting into Boston which takes an hour to get here and an hour and a half to get home. I'm sort of miserable.

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I'm sorry you're feeling miserable! I find that between care plans, field trips, screenings, immunizations, and reports that need filed- the fews times that I'm bored are awesome! My first year was really difficult though. I came from a unit with very high acuity, where we were all constantly running, to school nursing where there is actually some downtime. After 8 years of hell(that's what my floor was referred to by everyone in the hospital), it was a BIG adjustment. I also felt like I wasn't really doing anything here. But, going into year 4, I find that I'm a lot less bored and a lot happier overall. It is a huge change!

It takes time to settle into a new place and really find your way of doing things. Maybe look into starting a project for the school-healthy eating info or a student and family wellness night. When I find myself getting bored(usually after the rush of the start of school and the time before screenings) I revamp the common bulletin boards in the main hallways. It gives me something to do and it makes the office staff happy because they hate doing them. Make sure all of your school health needs are covered, emergency care plans, medications, info to teachers as needed. Then ask to be in on any relevant 504 or IEP meetings, since they tend to forget to include the nurse. Do some research on any conditions that your unfamiliar with or heck, get some of those pesky CNEs out of the way. You'll figure it out and it will get better!

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Thanks! I hope so that it will get better. I don't do care plans here and field trips are every so often. I went on two about two weeks ago and that was the beginning of the school year trip. I don't have to update immunizations because the staff took care of that a while ago. I just have to start the screenings after I go to the training on the 25th of next month. I've been organizing and creating a filing system in my office with all of the kids medical records since I started so I'm almost done with that. But I don't rush through it because that's the only busy work I have to get me through the day. I also came from a busy unit but only after 1 year not 8 and I think that's probably why I feel bored. But I will give it some time to settle like you suggested. I just joined the wellness committee here but they meet twice a year. But I will find things to do to keep me busy as you suggested. I'm just not used to this pace and with little to no orientation there was no way in preparing for this role and what to expect. But thanks again for the advice.

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It will definitely pick up in the next couple months with all the illnesses, as well as all the screenings you have to do- are you aware of the State Mandated screenings you need to do for each grade every year? In MA we have Hearing/Vision annually, BMI starting in grade 1, scoliosis, etc. Also, are you teaching at all? Do you have everything in place for your DESE certification? That takes a lot of time. Where are you commuting from? Once bad weather hits, I feel for you. I only commute 15 minutes but when it snows, it was more like an hour, and don;t get me started on trying to find parking on the city streets...

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Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

Do you do health screenings on your students? I find doing those and then entering all the results take a big chunk of time. After those are all done, I start planning my classroom education stuff. I do hygiene/puberty for 4-6 graders, other grades get handwashing, healthy diets, etc. I also am just starting to put out a newsletter every couple months. Give it some time, I'm starting my 3rd year and am the happiest I've ever been in a job.

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I go to a training on the 25th of next month to educate me on the screenings. No, I don't teach. That isn't in my role nor did my boss ever tell me that I would have to. Just educate the staff on epipen's to check them off for the year. No, I don't have everything in place for the DESE certification. I'm only being sent to the screenings training and thats pretty much it. I don't know about your school but I don't have to complete a training or certificate to work here. I'm commuting from Canton to Dorchester so it takes me about an hour to get to work through the morning traffic rush. I can't even imagine what it will be like when it snows. My last commute was barely 20 mins at my old job. But I hope it picks up like you say. I hate this feeling of not feeling challenged at work and bored. I feel like I'm just complaining and that I should suck it up since I choose to apply and work here.

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I do but will not start until after I go to the training on screenings on the 25th of next month. They keep telling me that I will be busy then so I hope so. I work at a charter school and the kids are here from 715-345 every minute of their day is scheduled out to a tee. There are no nurse education classroom things for me to plan. But like you said I will give it some time. I'm not much of a quitter so I don't see myself quitting 1 or 2 months in to a position but I've just never felt like this with any of the jobs I've held from the very beginning. So I will try to stay positive. There was no nurse here when I started so I couldn't even ask her how the routine goes. They haven't been able to hold a nurse in this position for long (now I find this out from the students). They had 3 nurses last year back to back. So everyone's happy I'm here since I'm full-time and plan on working through the school year.

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Unfortunately, the whole no orientation thing seems to be the standard for school nursing. If you have kiddos with serious conditions or life-threatening allergies, you may want to consider doing emergency care plans. I can send you my blank format, if you'd like. I find it's a great way to communicate info. The teachers get a plan for any child with a need in their classroom, our emergency team gets a booklet of all of the plans, I keep one in my office, one in my emergency bag, a copy goes with the child's emergency med for any field trips. It has their name, picture, medical issue, signs and symptoms, how to treat, and all parent contact info.

You probably want to double check immunizations. I've found that when non-nurses enter the info, they sometimes(or very frequently) miss things, plus you'll want to know who your kiddos with exemptions are and which vax they are exempt from.

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Yeah thanks I will start a binder for that since there doesn't seem to be one. That will give me something else to work on. The immunizations aren't entered in the computer they're just in each student's medical chart. So I'm not really sure what I should be double checking on. I only have one student with diabetes and 2 sickle cell and the remainder would be asthma, ADHD, and allergies. Sure, I will take a copy of your blank format if you don't mind. That would be much appreciated.

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

Welcome to school nursing! Do you have a computer program that will flag all those kids with health issues and/or kids who need additional vaccines? My lived experience tells me that I'm never done with vaccine compliance, but then I am a HS nurse in a place where we get a lot of kids from different countries. Good luck.

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No, there isn't one. I've asked about immunization compliance and how do I keep up with it and organize it and my boss says it's all set. He says my biggest focus will be screenings that need to be performed for all grade levels 5th-8th. I start them once I go to the training on the 25th of October. Thanks for your advice. I'm sure everything will fall in place at some point. I'm just nervous that I jumped too quick and potentially made the wrong decision. But I guess that's where sticking it out for a year and then moving on if it's still not for me comes into play. Thanks again.

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Specializes in School nursing.

I work at a charter school and I'm slammed! I see a lot of students, teach health class, do screenings, and the list goes on and on.

If you are the first school nurse there, do you have a health handbook? Mine has been in progress as I was also the first full first school nurse at my charter. Perhaps it would be an interesting project.

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