Geriatric experience/School Nurse Interview , what do I need to know?

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Hello All,

I have 40 years of geriatric experience and am interviewing for a School Nurse position this Friday.

After 40 years do you think I can transition to a new area of nursing I have no experience in?

Any helpful tips on what I should expect in the interview?

I must say I haven't interviewed for a position in years and am extremely nervous!

HELP PLEASE!

Specializes in School Nursing.

You definitely can transition to anything you set your mind to!

If you go through some topic posts in this forum, look for "first year" type of ones, there are lots of comments related to the common stresses of the first year. I'm pointing you that direction because this forum starts to fizzle from early June through August, there are few of left still working this late in June, and this is definitely a "break room" type of check in, so when we aren't working not as many responses.

100% brush up on education laws. Be prepared to answer questions related to IDEA protections, 504 qualifications/implementation, Emergency care plans and health care plans. Be familiar with how you share health information with FERPA as it covers the education setting (health records are part of education records, so this is the "HIPAA" of education)

Thank you for the vote of confidence!

I've been researching the education laws as you suggested.

I just started a new school position in January. I was a float nurse yet pediatrics was one floor I never covered. It's ok. I work in a large system and I have yet to meet a school nurse in this system that worked in pediatrics. They have worked ICU, home care, geriatric, ortho, oncology, emergency, med-surg...some even went straight to school nursing after getting their RN. So go for it!

You definitely can! Emphasize any experience you have with diabetes/insulin/counting carbs, seizures/seizure meds/seizure precautions, triaging, working independently, dealing with family members, educating patients. Our old principal also thought that having kids was equivalent to having worked in peds.

That's excellent advice, thank you.

My interview is tomorrow, I will let you know how it went!

I have 4 kids and 7 grandchildren that I will definitely mention. ?

Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.
Specializes in kids.

How did it go?

Hello everyone,

Well I had the interview last Friday. It’s a charter school so the principal, assistant principal and the superintendent were the interviewers. I wasn’t to nervous I thought I had prepared well. (thanks to the advice I received here) There was one question I went blank on , “what would you do if the was an outbreak of lice in the school. I answered honestly and said I would have to review the schools policy in case of an “outbreak of lice”. The whole “outbreak” term threw me off.

All other questions I answered without hesitation and thought I had good questions for them at the end.

They did ask if I “retired” from my last job. I hope my age (young) 63 doesn’t hinder my chances to get this job.

They were all very pleasant and the assistant principal and superintendent walked me out. I sent a thank you note hand written via the mail Friday after the interview. They said they would let me know by the end of this week.

Im waiting and will let you all know when I hear anything.

Thank you again for pointing me in the right direction to research this position! If I do get the position I’m sure I’ll be coming to Allnurses for advice, ideas etc...

Thank you!

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