I am B.S.N. nurse in my early 20's and currently working my first job as a nurse in a prestigious hospital's PICU. Throughout nursing school, I had many areas of interest, including neonatal/pediatric ICU, geriatrics, OR nursing, and nursing education or becoming a school nurse. I didn't think that I would want to be a nursing professor or school nurse right away, but at 7 months into my PICU job, I am already exploring other areas of nursing that would better fit my personality and desired lifestyle.
Basically, I love the level of acuity where I work now, but I do not think as fast as some of the other nurses and I am having some difficulty transitioning from textbook to real practice. Although I got good grades and graduated with honors, nursing school was hell for me, much because of certain professors. Ever since then, I have had a desire to become a professor so I can use my experience to make it better for others who are going through nursing school.
When I think about being a school nurse, I think about how fun it would be to work in a school and to have an educator role as well as a somewhat clinical-nurse role. Also, the hours seem ideal for somebody who doesn't really have the stamina for rotating 12 hour shifts (that's what I'm currently working).
Here are my questions:
1. What does a day in the life of both a nursing professor and a school nurse look like?
2. Pros/Cons of each?
3. Salary/compensation
4. Experience I need
5. What kind of education I need to pursue further?
6. Is there room to climb?
7. Are either of these good choices for somebody who wants to be very actively involved in my own family in the future? I'm currently single, but more than anything in the world, I want to be a wife and mother (yes, I'm one of those girls...haha)
If you have any thoughts or comments at all or anything to add, I would deeply appreciate them! Thank you!
You do not want to be a school nurse and deal with the parents plus they tend to be the first thing cut from budgets. I've heard sooooo many horror stories about parents.
From a strictly financial viewpoint neither of the positions you are thinking about pay the best.
If you are truly interested in teaching you will need to continue your education, a doctorate will be required for most positions and the compensation will most likely be far less than you can find in other positions that degree might qualify you for.
I can't speak to how school nursing pays except in my school district where it stinks. The pay is the same low scale, as in under $16.00/hr low no matter the degree. Doesn't matter if you are an LPN or RN that is the pay. The benefits have been cut so drastically the past few years that it no longer compensates for the lower pay. Our school district literally can't hire enough nurses, here we are almost halfway through the school year and 2 of the smaller schools don't even have a regular nurse as they have had to shuffle staff to cover the bigger schools. One of those school nurses that used to work with me came back to our facility because of the low pay, lousy benefits and constant moving from school to school to provide coverage. So now our district will be short one more nurse.
So I guess my opinion is do a lot of research into this before you make any big decisions.
I am B.S.N. nurse in my early 20's and currently working my first job as a nurse in a prestigious hospital's PICU. Throughout nursing school, I had many areas of interest, including neonatal/pediatric ICU, geriatrics, OR nursing, and nursing education or becoming a school nurse. I didn't think that I would want to be a nursing professor or school nurse right away, but at 7 months into my PICU job, I am already exploring other areas of nursing that would better fit my personality and desired lifestyle.
If you have any thoughts or comments at all or anything to add, I would deeply appreciate them! Thank you!
If critical care nursing is too fast-paced for you at this time, perhaps a switch to a more reasonably paced med/surg unit would be a good fit. For instance, instead of PICU, go to the floor pediatric unit. Or go to Medical; you'll learn a lot there.
You could use these opportunities to gain some experience and "get your bearings", so to speak. Later on, when you're more comfortable, go back to pediatric critical care.
Just wanted to point out that there are 2 distinct species of nurse educators: academic & workplace. An appropriate MSN (that incorporates curricula from the discipline of education) and relevant experience will qualify you for some very nice workplace educator positions in which salaries are comparable to other nursing leaders in the organization... about twice what an MSN in academia can earn. Our jobs aren't a walk in the park, but they are increasingly important in today's world of value-based purchasing in which nurse competence is vitally important.
Also- the title "professor" indicates a senior, tenured educator. It has to be earned & should not be used for mere 'instructors' or other lesser beings. I have extremely high regard for my academic colleagues - who are passionate about nursing and serve as exceptional role models for their students.
DeeAngel
830 Posts
You do not want to be a school nurse and deal with the parents plus they tend to be the first thing cut from budgets. I've heard sooooo many horror stories about parents.