I just finished an interview for a school nurse in a nearby district. I think it went very well. I have a feeling they will be calling me back and offering me the job.
Any other ex-ER RN's out there that made this similar transition? I am assuming it will be hard at first but I will adjust.
I know the pay is less, but with school age children, the schedule in my mind makes up for the less pay. No weekends, holidays, or on call is a beautiful thing. Plus I think the ER is becoming a bit to stressful for me. For example, lately I find myself almost in tears when I am talking to a psych patient who I can't help/fix besides giving them sedatives and holding them in the ER until the county comes out to see them. The system is so broken, I hate what it does to people.
The reason why I chose to seek a school nurse position was because I feel like I would have a lot of autonomy, and I think it would be fun, challenging and rewarding. I really like kids and would like to be a positive influence for them.
I have been working in the ER for about 15 years, I have a BSN and I am almost forty and needing a change. I already have CEN, TNCC, ECRN, Anyone out there in a similar boat? Did you make this transition and like/hate it?
I am a BSN, RN and was a floor nurse on a cardiac unit prior to school nursing. I absolutely love my job now. I, too, have school age children and the schedule is perfect for my family. You can never get the time back to spend with your family, that is why I chose the dramatic pay cut just to have time with my family. Plus, the stress has decreased significantly for me. I work in an elementary school and working with the innocence of these kids is refreshing. I certainly don't miss the drug-seekers, impossible doctors, or the cattiness of other nurses in the hospital. I was lucky to get hired into a school with wonderful, helpful staff. Good luck!
I am a BSN, RN and was a floor nurse on a cardiac unit prior to school nursing. I absolutely love my job now. I, too, have school age children and the schedule is perfect for my family. You can never get the time back to spend with your family, that is why I chose the dramatic pay cut just to have time with my family. Plus, the stress has decreased significantly for me. I work in an elementary school and working with the innocence of these kids is refreshing. I certainly don't miss the drug-seekers, impossible doctors, or the cattiness of other nurses in the hospital. I was lucky to get hired into a school with wonderful, helpful staff. Good luck!
My story is similar. I was a telemetry/medsurg nurse for years and have four young children. Once my youngest was in school fulltime, I knew I wanted to make the switch to school nursing. I work 8:15am to 3pm and am out the door everyday at 3pm, on time. I am home at 3:10pm to greet my children. We do homework together, I cook dinner every night and then drive them to activities. Life is busy, but wonderful. I don't miss a thing anymore. I have every weekend and evening off to do family stuff and I even have time after work to go to appointments, get shopping and errands done so I don't have to use all my weekend time catching up. I do laundry throughout the week also so I can just relax on Saturdays and Sundays. This is my first summer off in 6 years and I am LOVING the time to relax and be with my children, especially not paying for a babysitter or trying to coordinate their activities while I am at work.
I make $47k a year and that isn't bad for essentially part-time work (35 hrs a week + 40 weeks/year). I carry the benefits for my family. I get three personal days and 2 weeks sick time. In 13 years when I am at the top of my pay scale, I will make around $80k a year. I will have a state pension when I retire at 65. And I can do this kind of nursing until I am 65 (unlike medsurg nursing which harms nurses emotionally and physically).
And the best part - the job is fun and rewarding. And the saying is true - my worst day as a school nurse is STILL better than the best day as a medsurg nurse. I like being my own boss, the kids are fun, lice doesn't bother me one bit, sometimes I actually diagnosis something important (I caught testicular torsion last year), and I am still learning about new things (especially infectious diseases).
I feel like I have hit the lottery with this job. I am very lucky that my husband makes good money so I was able to make the transition to school nursing. My children love having mommy at home and I love that I get to have a career but not at the expense of my mental or physical health and that of my children and husband. A very lucky woman I am!
.....edited to add that I am an MSN, RN. I got my MSN while working in the hospital in medsurg. An MSN is required in my state. I got it fairly cheap at a local state university. If I ever get bored, I plan on teaching in the evenings at the local undergraduate nursing program.
Just saw this thread. I'm a former ER/L&D/Med-surg nurse (rural nursing does it all). I still work hospice but not even part-time so I don't qualify for benefits. I happened upon the school nurse thing as a fluke.
I'm have a BSN too. Nurses here have to have a BSN and they have to get their credential. We have 5 years to do so (the state grants you a temporary credential) and I've got two more years until that deadline so I'm applying right now to a university that has an online program.
I do miss the ER but I love the hours as a school nurse. I work 24 hours a week and get benefits.
There was no training offered by the school but I was lucky in that a local recently retired school nurse decided to offer the 6 new nurses in our county some training for free. We met together for 6 weeks and I was so grateful. There are many mandates by the state but if you are only contracted for 24 hours you have to pick and choose. I do the hearing and vision for IEP's, I write the health plans for kids with diabetes/seizures/allergies/etc. I screen all Kindergarten students for H&V. We have one diabetic elementary school kiddo and I'm there to give him insulin at lunch. That's about all I can do. We have two high schools, two elementary school, and then continuation and preschool too.
It isn't my dream job . . but it works for me as I want to be home for my son. I want to see his sporting events and his band concerts and go for walks with him and have mommy/son days. When I worked full-time (or more than full-time) with my 3 older kids, I missed out on so much.
Just remember you cannot claim social security and federal retirement, you have to chose one or the other; which I have just learned recently... Not quite fair since you earned every penny. So something to investigate and think about for your retirement. Good luck!
Can you elaborate? School nursing is a state job; not federal.
My story is similar. I was a telemetry/medsurg nurse for years and have four young children. Once my youngest was in school fulltime, I knew I wanted to make the switch to school nursing. I work 8:15am to 3pm and am out the door everyday at 3pm, on time. I am home at 3:10pm to greet my children. We do homework together, I cook dinner every night and then drive them to activities. Life is busy, but wonderful. I don't miss a thing anymore. I have every weekend and evening off to do family stuff and I even have time after work to go to appointments, get shopping and errands done so I don't have to use all my weekend time catching up. I do laundry throughout the week also so I can just relax on Saturdays and Sundays. This is my first summer off in 6 years and I am LOVING the time to relax and be with my children, especially not paying for a babysitter or trying to coordinate their activities while I am at work.
I make $47k a year and that isn't bad for essentially part-time work (35 hrs a week + 40 weeks/year). I carry the benefits for my family. I get three personal days and 2 weeks sick time. In 13 years when I am at the top of my pay scale, I will make around $80k a year. I will have a state pension when I retire at 65. And I can do this kind of nursing until I am 65 (unlike medsurg nursing which harms nurses emotionally and physically).
And the best part - the job is fun and rewarding. And the saying is true - my worst day as a school nurse is STILL better than the best day as a medsurg nurse. I like being my own boss, the kids are fun, lice doesn't bother me one bit, sometimes I actually diagnosis something important (I caught testicular torsion last year), and I am still learning about new things (especially infectious diseases).
I feel like I have hit the lottery with this job. I am very lucky that my husband makes good money so I was able to make the transition to school nursing. My children love having mommy at home and I love that I get to have a career but not at the expense of my mental or physical health and that of my children and husband. A very lucky woman I am!
.....edited to add that I am an MSN, RN. I got my MSN while working in the hospital in medsurg. An MSN is required in my state. I got it fairly cheap at a local state university. If I ever get bored, I plan on teaching in the evenings at the local undergraduate nursing program.
Your post gives me so much hope about the career choice I would love to have! I'm waiting to hear back from a school nurse position I interviewed for a few days ago. But everything you have mentioned is exactly how I feel at this point in life. I'm also working on my MSN too, so I will have a back plan. Thank you again for your post and insight :)
These posts make me hopeful that maybe school nursing may be a path I should follow.
I have had my BSN for 19yrs. I worked most of my career as a med/surg nurse. I have been doing hospital case management for about a year now. I made the switch for the main reason to be home during most weekends and holidays. I work 1 holiday a year and 10 weekends a year 3 days a week, salary.
I have 3 kids, the oldest is in his last year of elementary this year and the youngest is 3. I was offered a job as a school nurse YEARS ago, before I had kids, but the pay was just too low for me to accept. But now that I have the kids it changes your priorities.
I like case management, but it's still late days (8-430p) and I don't get home til almost 530pm by the time I leave and drive home. Kids afterschool activities seem to start anywhere from 4pm-6pm, which makes it difficult.
I'm going to start looking. Hopefully I will find some options, not sure with it being less than a month til school starts that anything will be available.
Hopefully my experience in Med/surg will be enough!
I am happy to report that I start officially Friday at a local elementary school. I am super-excited. I am staying on in my ER per diem. I just love my ER co-workers so much. I work in a crazy busy ( avg 200 people a day) ER but what keeps me there are the people I work with.
At the school, I am currently going over emergency action plans for students with allergies/seizures/DM and will be inputting these into our computer system. Then school starts and...bring it on! I did find a "forged" eye exam today. ***** She whited out her older daughter's name on the eye exam and wrote in her younger child's name. You can totally tell. I will confront her gently and offer assistance if her child needs an exam.
I didn't think I would have to deal with lying parents. I feel bad for that kid.
Hello again. I was just wondering if ERRNDeans has any updates on the school nursing at this time? Also, for any nurse who does this type of work, I was wondering what are the nurse patient ratios in large urban areas? If ratios are 1000 to one, how does the nurse manage? Do you travel to various schools throughout the day? What is does the expectation from the employer or schools? Thanks, :)
I am in an elementary school with almost 700 kids, k-5. I am at the school from 9-3pm M-F. It's a whole different scene than the hospital, which is what I was looking for.
I guess they didn't have a nurse at the school everyday last year. I have no idea how they managed. I have seen close to 50 kids in one day!
Marisette - I work in a city with a population about 140,000 and our school district has 37 public schools, with a nurse at each and a health clerk at each middle and high school. There are 8 other cities of comparable size within 30 miles for a total area population of 1.7 mil, with 9 school districts -- big military area, lots of population turnover. I'm at the smallest elementary school in my district, with 464 students at the moment.
Ratios vary at each school and through each district. City districts are more likely to have a nurse at every school, whereas I know some rural districts that only have a health clerk to split between multiple schools! The best way to find out is to contact the health services coordinator or HR at the district you're thinking of applying to.
And remember, even though the ratio is technically 464 to 1 here, in reality I only have 10 kids who get daily meds, maybe another 30 with emergency meds, and the rest is visits from "sick" kids and actual sick kids. I've had 3 kids in here at the same time today, but right now clinic's empty. Things change quickly. And for the principal (who is my direct supervisor), the expectation is to keep kids in class. This means sending really sick kids home so they don't infect others, and sending the ones who just want to hang out back to class ASAP.
NrsAng
3 Posts
I am a BSN, RN and was a floor nurse on a cardiac unit prior to school nursing. I absolutely love my job now. I, too, have school age children and the schedule is perfect for my family. You can never get the time back to spend with your family, that is why I chose the dramatic pay cut just to have time with my family. Plus, the stress has decreased significantly for me. I work in an elementary school and working with the innocence of these kids is refreshing. I certainly don't miss the drug-seekers, impossible doctors, or the cattiness of other nurses in the hospital. I was lucky to get hired into a school with wonderful, helpful staff. Good luck!