How'd you get that school nurse job?!?!!

[SrnD]

I'm a brand new RN working in a hospital on a med/surg floor but my dream is to someday work in school nursing. I love the idea of working with kids in a school setting while getting to be a nurse also =) Anyway, I'm sure the process for getting hired/finding work as a school nurse is a little different than for hospital jobs where you can easily go online to the hospital's website or something.

So how did all you school nurses find your jobs? And for those who are actively in the process of looking for a position as a school nurse, where/how are you looking exactly? Do you call the schools/district?

Thanks in advance for your time!

[safarirn]

Sign up at your local office to be a substitute school nurse. Then look in surrounding districts for job postings. That experience as a sub will give you an edge over a more experienced nurse without school nurse experience.

[Neveranurseagain, RN]

You may want to work as a camp nurse too, to expose you to the types of things you will see at schools. It will give you a chance to learn to assess ears and use an otoscope, you'll learn to work autonomously, handle an epi pen, emergencies of all types and deal with the dreaded thing of all-parents! You have to learn who is faking it, and who is not. There are days when the the nurse's office should be called the drama center, not the trauma center. And not every camp requires you to be there all summer. Most of them will accept nurses for a one or two week stay. If you have children, they can usually go to the camp with you also, and participate in camp. But camp nursing is great training to be a school nurse.

To get hired at my school district I checked their online website under job postings every week before I finally spotted an opening. Depending on where you work, the pay may be a real shocker!

[bergren]

Most districts post openings on the online district website. Check the surrounding communities.

I found two of my school nurse jobs through ads in the paper. One I found by attending the state school nurse conference in a community I had just moved to and was working a week later. Many of the states hold fall conferences in October, so something to consider, plus it looks good at an interview that you were taking CE before hand to enhance the knowledge needed for this subspecialty. Also many of the states have job boards.

State affiliate link: http://www.nasn.org/Default.aspx?tabid=60

Good luck!!

[rdsxfnrn]

craigslist

[Supernrse01, BSN]

I was blessed to be in the right place at the right time! My husband is a teacher in the district and we happeneed to be on the phone (he was on summer break and I was working in the office) when he opened an email stating the current nurse had resigned the position. I hung up and immediately called the BOE and was hired 2 weeks later.

[SrnD]

thanks for the replies everyone! you've all been helpful! i recently found out in PA where i am, a school nurse needs a bachelor's (i'm ADN) and a school nurse certification, but at least now i know what i need to do to get where i want to be. i now have an even better reason to get that bachelor's. thanks again!

[conscientiousnurse]

In my state, there are also LPN positions available in schools. Most of them will allow RNs to apply for these, if you can tolerate the pay. Looking on all the school district websites is how I found my job.

[conscientiousnurse]

It is also possible that if they really want to hire you, some schools may employ R.N.s on a conditional basis, while they are working up from R.N. to BSN. I found out today that that happened for a nurse who used to work for the school district as an LPN and then got her ADN. Now she is working as an RN in that district and taking courses for getting her BSN at the same time. Doesn't sound easy, but could be possible.