Help, question for school nurses

[RN2003-2]

I have a question for the school nurses. I was offered a school nurse position at a

local middle school of approximately 900 students. I have never been a school nurse

before and have approximately 8 years of nursing experience. I was told that there

would be an 8 hour training at another location and then I would be expected to be

on the job. There is no nurse to train me at this time as their nurse has left. Does

this seem right? Do you think this 8 hours is enough? I know this includes the County

policies and such. Don't you think a nurse should be with me for at least one day?

Thanks for your help.

[schoolnursejennie]

i recently became a school nurse for a school of about 300 students. i had an 8 hour training with the nurse that was vacating the position. i would say that it is doable but there is definitely a steep learning curve. you will have to teach yourself and become familiar with the school policies, state, and county laws on your own. also becoming familiar with the office and where all of the supplies and paperwork is located. with 8 years of nursing experience under your belt, you will probably be fine as far as assessing the students needs and implementing a plan of care; the difficulty will be in getting used to a new type of bureaucracy and administration to answer to. hope this helps.

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

There is a lot to the job. In my state we need to be certified as school nurses - which means about 30 credits of classes focused on school nursing and public health, etc. It amazes me now that i am in the educational system here that a novice teacher goes through a precepting period for like 2 years while a novice school nurse gets thrown to the wolves.

[luvapug]

Years ago when I was hired as a school nurse I only had one year of nursing experience and NO training other than on policies in a boardroom. My first day of school they didn't have my office ready so I had to sit in the main office beside a filing cabinet and take care of a few student files and treat a couple kids but basically didn't have much to do that day and was afraid I was going to get into trouble for not doing enough! (It did pick up.)Anyway, you'll learn as you go and it's doable as long as you have someone to call with questions that will crop up. You'll most likely have lots of kids coming in that complain of headaches, stomachaches, sprains, etc. that you'll have to determine if they can stay in school or if you need to call someone to pick them up and any special procedures like giving meds, blood glucose checks etc. You will learn who the frequent complainers are and the things to do that just make a kid feel better so they can stay like ice and bandaids. If there is a true emergency you just have to keep them stable until 911 or their parent arrives. All the other things like screenings, training other staff, care plans, medicaid billing, etc you have to fit in there but you can take your time learning it. School nursing is a lot more laid back and a different pace than you're probably used to. You have to re-route your brain that you are in an educational setting and not a medical setting. In an ideal world you would get a couple weeks training just to get more confident but it will still take a good year or two to feel like you've got it down and after that you just know who to call to figure out the rest. It is a very independent type of nursing which I love and you may too once you're used to it.