How many nurses in your school??

[studentnurse9806]

Hello everyone!

I am wondering how many nurses are typically present in each school . I know if it's a small school it's usually just one but say for a high school with more students would there be 2? I have an interview coming up but am a little nervous if I were to get the job because I don't have any school nursing experience, just 5 mos in a pedi office and a year of psych . Any advice?? I'm from ct if that helps. Also, would love to hear from those who started in school nursing with little to no experience . Thanks in advance!

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

just me for my district which is two schools that are housed together pk-8 so just shy of 800 kids at last count. This year i do mercifully have an aide that comes in to help me with paperwork one period a day 3 times a week - it's not much, but it's more than i was getting.

[117800]

I have to agree with Wave Watcher. It depends on your strengths and weaknesses. I am at a school with approx 500 PreK - 5th graders. I started out doing Home Health Care - Well Baby Well Mom visits - which is pretty unheard of as a new RN. After doing that plus Occupational Health for about 3 yrs I was hired on by the school system. I was used to working independently so had no problem with the adjustment. Good luck to you. Let us know how it goes.

[kidzcare]

My school is 950 students with one nurse. One other school in our district is the same, then others are about 450 students with one nurse

[Rubor]

I have 2 schools, so over 1000 kiddos. They are on the same campus.

[Rubor]

Forgot to add that both schools have health room assistants pretty much the entire day.

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

Two school in my district, about ten minute walk away from each other. I manage about 480 kids (7th-12th). The other nurse manages 200 kids (5th & 6th).

But I've subbed at large districts; when I worked in a large HS of ~1600 students, I was one of two nurses.

[RatherBHiking, BSN, RN]

Chances are you'll be the only nurse for the school. When I first started school nursing I had three schools by myself and only 1 1/2 hrs experience. Now they require 5 yrs experience in our district and most of the nurses only have one school but some still have two like I do. It's not the size that matters it's the type of special needs students that are there. They even hired part time nurses to help out at the three biggest schools so sometimes there is more than one nurse part of the time.

You don't need school nursing experience to be a good school nurse. You need to be able to prioritize, act quickly, multi-task, and have very good assessment skills. If you think you can handle that then you'll be ok. There are usually protocols in place for emergencies. When all else fails call 911. Most of the time the students are healthy and stable or they wouldn't be in school. The biggest emergencies are anaphylactic shock, asthma attacks, seizures, broken bones, concussions, etc. These all have protocols and sometimes you aren't even sure if a bone is broken so you have parents pick them up for xray and find out later that's what it was. Most of the time you will not be dealing with emergencies. You will be dealing with students who complain of not feeling well and you have to scope out if they are truly ill or just want to go home (usually it's the latter). You deal with a lot of lice!!!! You will hand out lots of ice for minor stuff the student wouldn't think twice about at home. Of course tons of paperwork, screenings, immunization reviews, care plans, medication administration, blood glucose checks are all part of it but nothing you couldn't handle.

[gbyrd74]

I am a RN in a very small district. We only have about 735 students 4K through 12th grade and I serve the entire population. All of our schools are on the same campus, and I am centrally located in the District Office.