New Grad RN, Will being a school nurse lock me into never moving into acute care?

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I have recently graduated and am interviewing for a school nurse position. I loved the high paced clinicals (ER, OB, ICU) but havn't been able to get an interview for those positions. I am applying for other positions now too. If I get offered the school nurse position, is it career suicide to take it? Will I be able to move into acute care down the road? The position would be a great schedule fit for my family (I have 5 kids and haven't worked outside the home in many years). The pay is really good (about 50% more an hour than the hospital). I have my Bachelors in Education but only my associates in nursing, I plan on doing a RN-BSN bridge, and working a school schedule would make that easier. What are your thoughts? Would this be okay to do for a couple years or should I think long term about where I would like to be career wise?

Thank you for any input!

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Sounds like it may be a good fit for your and your family. I would start out with looking for sub Nurse positions and keep your options open for other areas of interest.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.
... Would this be okay to do for a couple years or should I think long term about where I would like to be career wise?

Thank you for any input!

Considering your experience base and considering, as a school nurse, you would be responsible for every imaginable illness or injury or medical condition, as well as every unimaginable injury or illness or medical condition, and have no one to consult regarding every medical/accident/injury decision you make hundreds of times per week/day, and that the safety and well being of the entire student body of your campus would be your personal professional responsibility...what do you think you would be doing, "for a couple of years?"

In other words...do you have any real world idea what school nurses do?

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Specializes in School nursing.
Considering your experience base and considering, as a school nurse, you would be responsible for every imaginable illness or injury or medical condition, as well as every unimaginable injury or illness or medical condition, and have no one to consult regarding every medical/accident/injury decision you make hundreds of times per week/day, and that the safety and well being of the entire student body of your campus would be your personal professional responsibility...what do you think you would be doing, "for a couple of years?"

In other words...do you have any real world idea what school nurses do?

This. Being a school nurse has me thinking on my feet a lot more than some of my friends did in their acute care positions after nursing school. When I became a school nurse, I was still in my part time family NP program. I'd go into class and talk about my day and my assessments and discover my independent I was and have valuable my job skills were.

A friend of mine that works acute care regularly subs for me. She couldn't believe how demanding and rigorous my job was and I got texts all days so she could check in as she was so used to doing that at the hospital.

I think a school nursing background is extremely valuable work experience that represents a nurse with extremely solid and confident assessment skills.

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Are there medically complex students at the school? Mine has none so I volunteer for my county's medical reserve corps so I can keep my skills active. Good luck!

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Try for acute care. You don't know what you don't know.

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.

My standard response to this question. Many home health agencies do not hire new grads for good reason, they are isolated and independent. Not having a resource readily available is dangerous to your students and your license. Had you been an EMT or paramedic that dealt with first aid type situations, I may hesitate with my no, but given your experience, I would say no. Nursing is unique that there are numerous opportunities that are not bedside nursing, but those positions demand critical thinking that can only be sharpened by having others to challenge your decisions and mentors that can offer guidance and that is most often in the acute care setting. There are no shortcuts in nursing when it comes to experience. I encourage you to hone your skills in acute care and look into school nursing after your assessment skills are top notch. Good luck.

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Specializes in kids.
Are there medically complex students at the school? Mine has none so I volunteer for my county's medical reserve corps so I can keep my skills active. Good luck!

Yup! Kids with trachs, vents, gtubes, contact allergies, need for catheterization, etc

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I should have clarified that this is acutally a part time position for 4 hours a day. The school has one full time nurse and a full time health aid. I would be coming in to make sure there was coverage at all times (lunches and if the full time nurse is away), so I would have someone available to consult most of the time and especially in the beginning while I was new. Working part time days and having the summers off would allow me to get my BSN over the next 2 years which is why I specified that time frame.

I'm sorry if I came across as school nursing not being important or not encountering medically difficult situations, that was not my intent at all. I am close with the nurses in our school district, it was acutally one of them who cautioned me about going into school nursing right after graduating if I wanted to work in the hospital. I was just looking for a broader opinion from others in the field. Thank you for you input.

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Specializes in IMC, school nursing.
I should have clarified that this is acutally a part time position for 4 hours a day. The school has one full time nurse and a full time health aid. I would be coming in to make sure there was coverage at all times (lunches and if the full time nurse is away), so I would have someone available to consult most of the time and especially in the beginning while I was new. Working part time days and having the summers off would allow me to get my BSN over the next 2 years which is why I specified that time frame.

I'm sorry if I came across as school nursing not being important or not encountering medically difficult situations, that was not my intent at all. I am close with the nurses in our school district, it was acutally one of them who cautioned me about going into school nursing right after graduating if I wanted to work in the hospital. I was just looking for a broader opinion from others in the field. Thank you for you input.

I hate to beat the dead horse, no it would not be a great career move to become a school nurse from the start. You limit your growth and that will affect your students. Critical thinking is a learned concept, unless you had another avenue of experience with that, you will be handicapped. Sorry to be a wet blanket, but there is no substitute for experience. This is why many critical positions have you advance, co pilot before pilot, rookie with the old shoe, etc. So many new nurses want to circumvent the experience.

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Yes it will.

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Specializes in School nursing.

I went straight into school nursing as a new grad. I'm an odd one and not the norm. I got to work directly with another school nurse in two nurse health office at a very large school. That is often not how it works and I was lucky. But I was also a long term sub getting my feet wet while looking for a more permanent position.

I was applying to hospitals because I was told I had to work there first. But I HATED hospital rotations in nursing school - I did my perceptership on a very acute med-surg floor with a nurse that rotated days-nights every three weeks so I got to work days and nights. Great experience, but really spoke to me about my passion for preventive care. Nursing was a second career option for me and I worked in higher education so education felt right to me.

However, it was still a learning curve. Luckily my state has great PD options for school nurses and my school was willing to pay for me to attend several of them. There were huge! As was this lovely board :).

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