chineezguy

I'm a guy nurse. Been school nursing for 19 years. Worked on peds floor for 8 years prior to schools. I would recommend working in the hospital for a few years first. You gain lots of good skills there: how to think on you feet, how to deal with difficult people and people who are stressed out. You learn how to teach, you get exposed to all sorts of diagnoses. I enjoy my job for lots of reasons: I get to work with well kids, it's a great schedule (I work 192 days), I am well respected and am an important member of the team, etc, etc. So, go for it. Get through nursing school (my experience reminded me of basic training!) and then learn a ton of stuff when you start working. When you get burned out get your school nurse credential.

19 years. I miss aspects of working on a peds floor but I will never go back.

I too missed my nurse co-workers on peds my first year of school nursing. I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I had 3 middle schools : one predominantly black, one predominantly poor white and one predominantly Hispanic. To top off my first year I got layed off at the end of it!! I got a job in another school district which has a horrible student/nurse ratio. Despite the conditions, I've been here 18 years. One year I had 10 elementary schools. This year I have 5 elementary schools and one middle school. I think I have about 6,000 students. I get more respect in the educational setting than I ever did in the hospital where I felt like a slave. I have more time to educate myself and hence know a lot more now than I did when working in the hospital. Overall, I enjoy my job and would not consider going back to the hospital (too stressful). And, folks, I eat lunch and pee every day.