UpliftingRN

How often do these end up making the mass spread? Should you always do this procedure if an endoscope cannot access the mass (on outer wall instead of internal wall of stomach)? Is it ever advisable to wait and see using follow up imaging to note changes in size or proliferation?

Hi fellow school nurses! Does anyone here have experience using Paid Family Leave in NYS? I am having a baby next month and my school has never utilized this benefit before (I had to tell them about it). Because of this HR is not very well versed. What I want to know is how I get paid during school breaks and how taking the leave periodically works. Anyone with experience or advice is much appreciated!

Hi all, hope everyone is doing the best they can during these unique times! I have a question regarding an observation I have noticed in my school since we returned from pandemic closure. The teachers in my school have been frequenting the nurse's office with self reported "panic attacks", "something feels off", "I think my pressure is low/high", the list goes on. I of course under normal circumstances try to accommodate everyone however these visits have shot up drastically and have been adding even more to my plate amidst all the already overwhelming new normal we are all trying to navigate with our school nursing roles/responsibilities. Because of this I sent out a flyer saying our responsibility as school nurses is first and foremost for the students and teachers should only visit our office for emergent symptoms only. Apparently this caused some ruffled feathers as the previous school nurse had given free reign to the teachers to come down whenever and for whatever they wanted. NOw I am being asked to attend a meeting with the principals and our Chief of Academics (I'm in a private school). My question is if any of you know any legal/RN practice act/scope of practice statement I could use to fortify my position regarding our teacher problem. This is my first year as a school nurse so my scope has been so different here versus the hospital but it seems like I would need to be working under/reporting to a doctor in order to be assessing these teachers. I'm under the impress that in public schools the nurses don't even take a blood pressure or anything for faculty for that very reason. Any input/suggestions are much appreciated!!

Same thing here in my NYC school *rolls eyes*

Unfortunately since my school is a private school we do not have the child care licensing requirement like the public schools do apparently. But we SHOULD.

It's so interesting to hear how this is handled so differently depending on the school. I did actually volunteer to do a training which the principal replied "yes that would have to be a whole other thing but in the meantime this is how we are going to handle it". I just hated the feeling that it was just a passing the buck thing. I mean of course no one WANTS to clean up after toileting accidents but in the interest of the safety of the children/rest of the school, I was hoping the logic would be to keep the school nurse available for actual medical situations/issues.

Oh, they used that excuse as well! This is a private school and apparently unless you have a "contract" perhaps everything falls on you. Where's my contract?! It's really a shame.

Hi all, Just polling how many school nurses assist/toilet students when they have accidents in school. I am the only nurse in my school and I had a huge back and forth about this with a pre-k teaching assistant (who adamantly defended they were not "trained" to do this citing something along the lines of using proper precautions to do this) and later with the principal. I had to defend my view on why I should not be leaving the office to toilet an accident in pre-k as I feel I should be available in the nurse’s office to take care of students who have actual medical needs. Thoughts?

I'm sure my "new school nurse" sign is showing, but can someone tell me what sleep means in this instance?

I love this, thank you!

Hey everyone! So I'm 2 months into my very first school nurse job and I'm loving it! I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or resources for signs or posters that you hang up or distribute for student/teacher education such as the 5 B's for coming to see the school nurse. I was looking for a teaching tool to empower some of my students to initiate self assessment of a fall, ect. Any good resources are much appreciated!

That's awesome! Is this a public school system in CA?

Hi all, I was hoping you had some suggestions for an updated resource guide for a brand spanking new school nurse who needs a lot of brushing up on assessment skills, disease education, nursing indications and treatments for common situations faced in the school nurse environment (asthma, diabetes, anaphalaxis, seizures). I did find the Manual of School Health handbook for school nurses but it is 10 years old. Does anyone else have any go to resources or suggestions? Thanks!

93k for 184 days? What city is this in and what type of school? From what I’ve been reading this is astronomically higher than average school nursing pay. What is everyone else doing wrong?!

Are you factoring in 4 weeks (20 days) paid vacation and 9-10 national holidays that wouldn't count as working days at a regular job into the 262 when you are calculating salary?

Are you in NYC or another city in NY? I just accepted a position for $66,000 at a private school in NYC, however I did have to negotiate from the original offer of $62,000. They did take into consideration my years of experience and we have a "Staff Association" which is basically a union who authorized me to be placed on one step higher for salary. I am also working with another RN who is the Director of Nursing. They spread out the salary over 12 months in two paychecks per month and it's for 172 school days. We also get an additional 9% of our base salary beginning on our first day of work and vested in 3 years. The medical benefits are super pricey and almost $300/month

UPDATE: I officially accepted the offer after negotiating up about $4,000. There was a contract but they bumped me up one of the steps. For some reason they cut off the steps at 8 years experience for nurses but agreed to pay me based on 9 years (I have 10 in total). I at least feel more confident in accepting the offer and moving forward. A $30,0000 salary decrease is a bit scary! I am super nervous but also excited to start this whole new journey!

Hi all, I was hoping I could get some feedback or personal experience with this topic from the collective group. Upon my initial offer from a private school I was told the salary was non-negotiable when I tried to counter offer. There is a Staff Association with a collective bargaining agreement who delineates specific pay scale steps. This is my first time working in a school as a nurse and wasn’t sure if this was something that comes with the territory when you’re working in a school amongst teachers who are usually on specific pay scales (who actually have a higher pay scale). Any thoughts/experience with this?

I GOT AN OFFER! It is for $62,679 annually, paid out bi-monthly for the entire year for a 172 day school year. I'm getting nervous because I've never made this amount as an RN so I hoping this is a good offer? It's so hard to tell here in NYC because when I search online for salaries they varied pretty widely. It's a private school with a "Staff Association" that has a pay scale (separate for faculty and all other staff) which they cap at compensating past 8 years experience. Any thoughts?

UPDATE! I had my interview yesterday with the administration and the RN Director and I think it went well. I forgot how intimidating principals were lol! They were really grilling me and picking apart my experience (which was lacking school or peds experience). I felt a little inadequate at first but I felt by the end of the interview I won them over a bit with my personality and obvious passion for anything I do. I'm assuming it went well because the recruiter from HR has reached out asking for my references. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Thank you so much everyone for your insight and advice! My second interview is tomorrow with the RN Director of Nursing and the rest of the administration. I'm so full of excitement and nervousness at the thought of this new journey! I've never worked in a school environment and I don't have a ton of pediatric experience so I'm hoping my personality, passion and ambitions shine through! ❤️❤️❤️

Update: Interview went well! Thank you for all the advice on what to brush up on clinically! I have a final interview this week with the rest of the school board. The Director of Nursing gave me some more insight into what the student body looks like: Private school of 1500 students 200-300 faculty 1 Nursing director + potentially me (currently 2 per diems) 2 seizure kiddos, 1 diabetic, several on epi allergy plans, several regular meds The director said that it's a mad house there and she's always running around and there's a lot of work to do. I am all about the hustle and bustle and actually like a face-paced environment. However, these kiddos don't sound too "clinically sick" compared to what I've been hearing. Wondering what else could be so taxing there? I'm actually thankful I will have a less sick population since my clinical skills need to be ramped back up after so long without hands on experience and that I have another nurse to hopefully mentor me a bit. What else other than lots of sick kiddos creates a lot of difficulty for you as school nurses?

My interview is with the Director of Nursing tomorrow so I'm anticipating some real "on the job" type questions. The school is pre-k through 12th grade. Should I also commit developmental stages to memory? I want to be ready for any clinical type questions but don't want to stress and over do it just to remember nothing ?

What did you find to cause you to want to leave so quickly and what city are you in?

Hi Everyone! I am super excited and super nervous to have my 1st school nurse interview tomorrow! I was hoping to get some suggestions/pointers on how to prepare from all of you seasoned and experienced nurses. I am particularly nervous because I am coming from a nursing career without much peds experience and will have to brush up on my knowledge. Any tips or tricks will help! Hoping to be "one of you" soon ?!