ClinicCarrie

In our county a lot of schools allow the "clinic assistants" to coshare a job. I do 2 days a week (no benefits) and my partner does the other 3 with benefits. She gets a salary, I get hourly. I don't know if this occurs in other places, but it's probably worth checking out with the schools in your area.

In our county in GA the student (or the clinic assistant for the student) signs in on a paper log. Name, Grade, Reason for Visit, Time In. The rest of the log entry is for comments, temp, time out, fields to mark as sent home, return to class, talked to parent. This data is then transferred into a computer system (during the shift and/or after clinic closes). The paper sheet also has counts at the bottom for several of the fields which we do manually per day, such as number of routine vs PRN meds were given, how many kids sent home, etc. The computer program wasn't designed to do those. The parents can look at the log entries online if they are so inclined from their school's website. There is a "hidden comment" field if one wants to document extensively about an event that can't be seen online. The parent entry looks like the following: Date:12/7/2007 Incident Description:MENSTRUATION PROBLEMS Comments:MENSTRUATION PROBLEMS End Date:- Visit Description:Routine Visit Visit Comments:supplies Time In:1:35PM Time Out:1:40PM Follow-up Date:-

I just started working in one of those Georgia public schools (high school) in Roswell. I am a former RN who co-shares 2 days a week. My partner is still registered, and she works the other 3 days. She receives health benefits, I do not. My "salary" is pittance since a nursing background is not required to work in the clinic. My high school likes having folks with nursing backgrounds if possible. The cluster nurses get salaries I think comparable to teachers - but I'm brand new so I don't know for sure. I consider my work kind of like paid volunteer and I chose it as I had so much free time, and my daughter started this year at the school. I would say the turnover is high - I'm the 3rd "clinic assistant" in 3 consecutive years. My non-nursing friend quit her high school this summer after only 2 years. It's too soon to tell how long I'll stay. The ratio at our school is 1:2500 - so far I've seen about 30-40 students per 8 hour period. Some of the schools only do half day clinics, some do full. The cluster nurses visit the various schools in their cluster and do teaching, assisting, and emailing us lots of forms. They do way more than that I'm sure but I'm still learning the scoop. Hope that info helps a little. Oh, and we're on a 190 day schedule. Carrie.

I"m just starting in this field and I turn 57 this month. My daughter begins this fall at the high school where I will work 2 days a week. So I expect to be there at least 4 years. After that it will depend on whether we move to a new area when she goes to college. I'm looking forward to my new parttime career though it may not be very longlived!