BearLV

I would also suggest checking out any private schools in your area. Many private schools have their own nurses who are not part of the local school district and as such may have a harder time recruiting nurses and substitutes.

I am the school nurse for 650 students from preschool - 8th grade. I usually see between 30-40/day, but now that it is flu season its been between 50 and 60. Keeps me busy!

I remember a day that started out as bad and frustrating, but ended up being one of my better days as a nurse. I was a fairly new grad on a general surgery unit. I was getting a post op pt who had undergone a fairly minor procedure (I can't remember the exact surgery). So I was thinking to myself "this shouldn't be too bad." Well , wrong I was. It turned out this patient suffered from chronic pain. She was on multiple pain meds outside the hospital to keep it under control. Again, I can't remember the details, but I remember thinking at the time "wow, thats alot of medication." So the patient comes up to the floor in alot of pain. We got her settled into bed and she and her family quickly brought me up to speed on her history. I tell them "I will do my best to keep her pain under control, let me check the orders to see what I can get her." I go check the orders, and the surgeon has not ordered any of her outpatient meds restarted and has only order "Morphine 5-10mg IM Q4hrs prn." For a normal post op pt, this may have been sufficient, but not this woman. I gave her the max 10mg, and the poor woman was still writhing around in pain. I called the surgeon, and he ordered something like MS 2-4mg IV Q2hr prn breakthrough pain. Again I give it, and it doesn't touch the poor patient. I am starting to feel frustrated and overwhelmed. My patient is suffering and her family, as patient as they were trying to be were getting frustrated and letting me know about it. Finally, after a few more phone calls I got ahold of the anesthesiologist. He was very nice when I explained the situation, and put a call into the surgeon. It was finally decided to order a dilaudid PCA with a basal rate. I got it all set up, and within an hour my poor writhing in pain pt was resting comfortably in bed visiting with her family. Later that night my pt received flowers. She called me into her room and said "I want you to have these, you deserve them after all you did for me today." I felt so good. It was one of those moments where I felt I truly had made a difference for my patient during her hospital stay. Sometimes when we get overwhelmed with difficult patients or short staffing it is hard to remember why I wanted to be a nurse. But when I think about days like this, I remember...

St. Rose is one of the better places to work in the Las Vegas area (IMO). I work at the De Lima campus in Henderson and wouldn't go anywhere else. There are 3 campuses; 2 in Henderson and 1 in Las Vegas. The campus in Las Vegas, San Martin, is scheduled to open this summer. I know they held a job fair a few weeks ago, and I imagine they are continuing to hire new staff. Check out the website http://www.strosehospitals.org Good luck to you!

Wow, I am surprised that the nurse thought it would be okay to send him on the bus. I am a school nurse and would not dream of doing this. I am glad your son ended up okay.

I worked for 4 years before becoming a school nurse. My experience was varied- M/S, oncology, ortho, and rehab. I did not have any peds nursing experience. But my general nursing experience along with my excitement and willingness to try new fields helped me get the job. I've been a school nurse for a year now and am loving it. Good luck!

I wear scrubs 99% of the time. I can wear business casual clothing, but I am usually too lazy to drag out the iron. Not too mention I don't have very much business casual attire. I do have a nametag that I am required to wear.

Hang in there, it will get better. As a new grad I would be sick to my stomach and anxious before every shift. I didn't think I was cut out for nursing, and contemplated giving it up. But, slowly I did start to gain confidence in myself and my skills. Don't be afraid to ask questions and get another nurse's opinion if your not sure about something. Don't give up, a year from now you will look back and see how much you have learned and grown, both as a nurse and person.

One night aroung midnight as I was making my rounds I heard one of my patients hearing aids whistling. I went in his room to investigate and found him trying to put his hearing aid in. I said to him "it's midnight, why are you putting your hearing aid in?" He answered "I have to put it in or that crow will get it." Me "There's no crow here." Pt " Yes there is, right there on my bed." Me "Your in the hospital, there are no crows here." Pt " I know I'm in the hospital, the crow is sick!" Heehee, I had to run out of there quick before I started cracking up. I guess it all made sense to him!

LPN 90 - I am the new school nurse at the Alexander Dawson School in Las Vegas. Maybe the term school clinic threw the receptionist off. The info I gave above - fax and email are correct. Is there some way I can contact you? Thanks!

Hi LPN 90 and chilenurse, My school is the Alexander Dawson School and the fax # is 702-949-3627. My email is [email protected] Thanks for you help!

I have just started a new position as a school nurse. I am interested in developing a form that can be sent home with students to let parents know that the student had a minor injury at school - scrape, bump, etc. I am thinking any first aid or care delivered should be on the form as well as any signs/symptoms of further injury the parent should be looking for. As I said above, this form would be for minor injuries only that the parent would'nt necessarily need to be contacted about in the middle of the day (I would definitly contact the parents for something major). Does anyone out there have a similar form already in use they could send to me? I would really appreciate any ideas/info. Thanks! :)

Hi all, I have a question regarding applying for jobs between states. I currently live and practice as an RN in Nevada. However I am moving to Minnesota. I used to live in MN and was licensed there, but when I moved to Nevada I did not renew my Minnesota license. I have already applied to MN to renew my license and am waiting for that. My question is: can I apply for jobs in Minnesota even though I do not currently have a Minnesota license? (I am licensed in Nevada). And what would happen if I accept a position in Minnesota before my license is renewed or if I encountered a problem with renewing my MN license? I hope this all makes sense. Any advice would really be appreciated. Thanks!

I work on a fairly small unit of only 21 beds. In comparison, the med-surg floor in my hospital is 46 beds. We have rarely been full over the summer, our census is usually around 14-15, if that. Last weekend I worked we had a whole 7 patients on the floor. I started in April, and this last pay period was the first one since I've started where I have actually worked all my scheduled days, as we get put on call so often. I can't complain about being on call too much though, we get $2 an hour to be on call, and if they call you in its time and a half. So not too bad a deal in my opninion.

I think we could call this another one of Murphy's laws for nurses.

I started out nursing in Minnesota, working a day night rotation on a busy general surgical floor. On days our patient ratio was 3 to 1, we could assign one bath to the CNA's and were responsible for the other two. As it was a surgical unit, we as nurses were also responsible for ambulating our patients and performing any dressing changes. On nights the ratio was 5-6 to 1 with no CNA, so we were responsible for vitals, answering all call lights, any patient baths that were needed, etc. Most of the other nurses on the unit were good about pitching in if you needed any help cleaning up a patient or whatever. I recently moved to Las Vegas where the patient ratio on days is 7 to 1 - hello culture shock! The CNA's do all the baths, vitals, and assisting with meals. I am happy to help out with these duties when I have time, but with 7 patients, 5 of whom are usually pretty sick, I just don't have the time to do all these things.