How did you land a school nurse job?

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Hello,

I'm hoping to get a new job in June (I'll have 6 months med-surg experience by then). I assume June-September would be the time to look for a school nursing job. :cool:

Obviously I will search school district websites for job openings, but I'm wondering if there's another good job-search method? I'm hoping to move to Saratoga Springs, NY if that helps, but I'm open to moving anywhere in the northeast.

How did you get hired?

Feel free to PM me. :)

Specializes in Community Health/School Nursing.
Oookay.

Even though you are a Rangers fan, I will answer you.

In NY I would suggest going on OLAS and seeing what nurse jobs are available. It is a BOCES site. If there is a particular school you want, go to the website.

Me: I knew there would be an opening in my kids' HS, so I waited until it was posted and wrote a kick ass cover letter. The Principal did not know me other than my name, meaning I wasn't a PITA parent and my kids were not troublemakers, so I got called. I did NOT have any prior School Nurse experience, nor did I sub.

The pay in NY is terrible, just so you know.

Best of luck to you!

Lets Go Islanders!

School nursing pay in general sucks. lol :-) I am in the south and my oldest son who works at Best Buy makes almost as much as I do. Sad.

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Our school district pays sub school RN's the same rate as a sub teacher - $100/day. :woot:

I can make that is 2 hours at my hospital. I was shocked during the interview and declined the position. The salaried position wasn't much better.

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I worked as a substitute for Horizon Healthcare ( a school nurse substitute agency) in multiple schools. They kept me very busy in elementary, middle & high schools. I found that being a substitute prior to taking on a full time position was beneficial.This enabled me to see how other nurses had their offices set up and I got to work directly with various age group's. I was suprised to learn that I prefered the older students and working with the faculty in high schools.

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Specializes in kids.

I was approached by a faculty member/friend who advised me that the current nurse was retiring, and she said she thought I would be perfect for the job. Truth be told, it had never been on my career trajectory but...... I thought about it and with a 5 year stint in Home Health, felt it would be a great opportunity for me professionally as well as personally (single mom). So I applied and got the job! 21 years later I still love it, most days!

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I offered to do substitute teaching for the year prior to landing the school nurse position :)

I have been a nurse for 12 years, I knew I was going to have a major pay cut with this position, but I am so blessed I took the job. I love coming into work everyday. LOVE IT

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Specializes in School nurse.

Check the state requirements as they vary. In NJ you have to have a bachelors and state certification before you get hired. Highly recommend subbing. School nursing is nowhere as easy peasy as most think and you really need excellent assessment skills, the ability to make decisions quickly, be well versed in state and federal code, communicate with every type of personality, and like kids. The hours rock. Best of luck.

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Specializes in Adult ICU/PICU/NICU.
School nursing pay in general sucks. lol :-) I am in the south and my oldest son who works at Best Buy makes almost as much as I do. Sad.

When you work in a right to work for less state they do pay very poorly. However, our school RNs are on the same pay scale as the teaches. All hold at least a BSN and a certificate from the state department of education to practice as a school RN. Many have MSN or MEd degrees and they get paid quite a bit more money for that..and they do pretty well. The nurse I work with the most has her MSN with 14 years experience in the schools and she is making $70K a year. Granted, she works VERY hard.

To answer the OPs question, I got my job in school nursing after I retired from a long career in critical care nursing. I had been retired for about a year and ran into a former colleague at a tag sale. I told her that I had to retire due to my knee problem as I was just no longer physically able to do critical care anymore. She had become a school RN and within a month I trained to be a substitute assistant school nurse working with special needs students who require skilled nursing care. The pay for assistants is fairly low, so much so that I consider myself to be a volunteer. Depending on where you live, you may have to obtain extra training to become a school RN from the state department of education.

Best to you,

Mrs H.

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I second SchoolSpring, seems like a lot of schools in the northeast use that. Also, start looking NOW.. if a school knows they need to find a new nurse for next year, they will most likely have already filled the opening by June. And since the positions are very coveted, there are already people in the loop (parents, teachers' friends, etc.) eyeing them! I've had to do the school nurse job search twice and in my experience, March-May is when districts are posting and interviewing for the coming school year. Good luck!

Oh wow. That's earlier than I thought.

Thanks for all the resources. I'm going to get to work on it! I wish I could sub in school nursing, but my area requires 1 year of experience for substitute nursing. :(

I know the pay stinks, but new grad hospital pay isn't great either. It certainly isn't worth it for a few extra bucks.

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Check the state requirements as they vary. In NJ you have to have a bachelors and state certification before you get hired. Highly recommend subbing. School nursing is nowhere as easy peasy as most think and you really need excellent assessment skills, the ability to make decisions quickly, be well versed in state and federal code, communicate with every type of personality, and like kids. The hours rock. Best of luck.

Oh I know it isn't easy. I spent a semester of clinical in school nursing and worked as a sub aide, so I'm not going in blind. I still much prefer it to what I'm dealing with now in med surg. :)

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I know the pay stinks, but new grad hospital pay isn't great either. It certainly isn't worth it for a few extra bucks.

This depends on the state. I am in IL and the pay is drastically lower. I've learned on this board that many are on the same salary schedule as the teachers, which would be a massive raise for me. I had to take a $20,000 pay cut as a newer grad.

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In Texas we are divided by regions and some jobs (especially smaller districts) are posted on the regions general website. As some have mentioned I would check districts websites and apply for sub jobs and posted positions. I was a teacher before, so I'm familiar with how districts/schools work. I had minimal experience in the hospital and saw a posted position mid-year applied and got the job. I've heard it's harder in other states, but if it's what you want keep trying.

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I am also in Texas - our nurse positions are filled quickly, I don't even remember any of them being posted. In my district we are on the same pay scale as teachers though our subs are paid at a higher rate - teachers get $90 per day, sub nurses are paid at $150 per day. We are a large district with 60+ schools with a couple of new schools scheduled to open every year for the next few years. Our sub nurse list has maybe 20 subs listed and we always have a difficult time finding subs.

I started as a sub nurse then was offered a position half way thru the year - one of the elementary nurses I would sub for called me to let me know she was leaving and offered to give my name to the principal if I was interested. IT all happened really quick - within a couple of weeks for me.

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