new grad working as school nurse..

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Hello all! I'm a new grad with a BSN. I have been working at a hospital per diem in a psych ER for 7 weeks (I just got off orientation) and I just had an interview today with a school district in my area for a sub nurse position.

I took the psych ER job because I wanted to 1. give psych a try (and I'm not sure if it's for me long term.) 2. it's hospital experience 3. It's critical care so i thought it would look good on my resume and 4. I needed a job.

I ultimately want to end up in peds, so I am wondering if working as a school nurse would be enticing to potential employers as peds experience or am i better off skipping the school nurse job and focus more on my per diem hospital job? I want to focus on gaining the most relevant experience that will help me toward my end goal.

by the way, I'm fairly certain I got the sub school nurse job although I have not been formally offered the position. They gave me tax forms and direct deposit forms to fill out, instructed me take an online concussion course, and told me to make an appt to get finger printed (finger printing is a 100 dollar expense that I have to pay and I'm thinking they wouldn't have me pay it unless they were serious about hiring me) as well as dates that I can potentially start working if I get all my paperwork in on time.

thanks in advance for the input!

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Specializes in TBI & SCI.

Do you want to get into peds in a hospital setting, or something else? If a hospital setting, I'm not so sure I would take the school nurse position. Also, keep in mind that if you decide to do the school nurse position, it is not considered "clinical" (if that's the right word) and after a certain amount of time, if you DO decide to go back to bedside or hospital nursing, you may be required to go through a course to relearn or freshen up on your clinical skills. On another note, in my county, the hourly rate for school nurses is not very good.....and definitely much less than what an inpatient nurse would make. Also, again, in my county, school nurses never get a raise (which I don't understand).

If you are looking for steady income right now, I guess it would be worth considering. If not, I would stick with the hospital setting and just keep looking for transfer opportunities into their peds department.

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Do you want to get into peds in a hospital setting, or something else? If a hospital setting, I'm not so sure I would take the school nurse position. Also, keep in mind that if you decide to do the school nurse position, it is not considered "clinical" (if that's the right word) and after a certain amount of time, if you DO decide to go back to bedside or hospital nursing, you may be required to go through a course to relearn or freshen up on your clinical skills. On another note, in my county, the hourly rate for school nurses is not very good.....and definitely much less than what an inpatient nurse would make. Also, again, in my county, school nurses never get a raise (which I don't understand).

If you are looking for steady income right now, I guess it would be worth considering. If not, I would stick with the hospital setting and just keep looking for transfer opportunities into their peds department.

I am ultimately looking for peds in a hospital setting. Unfortunately, the hospital I'm at does not have a peds unit =[ . I'm hoping that a L&D position will open up at the hospital and that I can bid on then maybe use that to get into the (only) women and children's hospital in my area. Unfortunately besides that one women and childrens hospital (that is extremely hard to get into) there is only one other hospital that has a peds unit in my area.

I did a short rotation in an elementary school while in nursing school and I absolutely loved it so that's another reason I was excited about this sub job. I was hoping that the school nurse job could bring at least something to the table in terms of peds experience but I guess that may not be the case =/

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Also, again, in my county, school nurses never get a raise (which I don't understand).

Wha.....??? How is that legal?

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Specializes in Hospice.
Wha.....??? How is that legal?

There's no law says your employer HAS to give you a raise every year.

I would imagine that any place like that would experience a very high turnover rate...

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

I believe the general population, including the nursing population, does not understand the scope and specialty of school nursing so I don't think having that experience on your resume would cause a potential employer to give you the nod because of it; if you are trying to work in a setting other than school nursing.

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Specializes in TBI & SCI.

I originally missed the part of "sub" nursing. If that is the case and it's not a full time position, and you're still doing the other job, then I see no harm in doing it :).

As for the no raises in my county, it could be that it's a contract position (I never really looked into it, but did see the pay scale listed on the county website). Honestly, it seems like in my area, it's mostly RN mom's who left bedside nursing to be a SAHM, and then came back to school nursing when their kids started school. There are hardly ever any positions open in this area.

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