tmjRN

I really like caring for the kids too. but I'm not sure about the all the politics of being in a school.

Pay varies by locale. The DC area pays very well. Base pay is just as much if not more than in the hospital. In DC, the school nurses in the public schools are hired by the Children's hospital. In northern Virginia (Fairfax and Arlington) you're hired through the county governments. Same is true in Montgomery County, Maryland. Other counties in this area hire through the public school systems. I'm not sure what they pay in public schools here, but imagine that they have to compete with what Children's and the local county governments pay. It ends up being a pay cut if you work a lot of overtime in the hospitals (because there is little to no overtime in school health). Also if you work in 10 month position (some are 12 month), you make 2 months less salary. Some nurses work per diem in the hospital to make up for this or summer school/camp to make up for the pay difference. I find it to be much better quality of life than in the hospital and that is priceless in and of itself. Other specialities that have more autonomy and better work schedules than the hospital are case management, home health, public health nursing. Hope this helps!

Are there any PNPs out there who were formerly school nurses? What was that transition like for you? Would you recommend acute care experience in peds before starting a PNP program? If you've worked as a PNP and a school nurse, which did you prefer? What would you say about work-life balance in each? Does anyone work as PNP in a school-based health center? How would you compare that setting to other pediatric primary care settings? A little about me... I'm a former OB nurse that currently works as a school nurse/public health nurse in the DC area (northern Virginia). I already have a master's in public health, so they pay me pretty well. In my case becoming a PNP would only be a small raise in salary, but I would appreciate a new challenge! I took a position as a school nurse, because I advised it would be a good mix of nursing and public health. I find that is the case (especially with immunizations, tracking outbreaks, and health education aspects of it), but I'm starting to feel like I don't love this enough to stay in it forever. I love caring for children and think become a pediatric NP would be the best next step. I am also starting to see school-based health centers crop up (more so in Maryland than Virginia), but I think with my background in school health, working as a NP in this setting would be nice transition. Any thoughts?

This helped a lot. I've been working in-patient and I'm hoping public health would be a better fit for me. I know that working in public health is a pay cut, and I'll be in a lot of debt after my MPH, so I was hoping teaching would also supplement my income. I've enjoyed precepting new nurses, so I'm considering teaching as another option. I have a little bit of time before I graduate, but I just to start looking into what options I had that combine nursing, public health, and maybe education. Best of luck with your MPH program ;-)

I have been a mother-baby/antepartum nurse for four years now, and I want to transition public health. Mostly because I'm tired of being in a hospital. I have one year left in my MPH program and wondering what kinds of jobs I should be looking at. I like the idea of the NFP programs around the country because I'd still be working with moms and babies. Also a lot of the public health nurses on here seem very satisfied with their positions. I kinda feel dumb about getting the MPH because I could have worked with NFP with just my BSN. So I'm hoping to maybe use my MPH to become an educator. Are there any PHNs out there who also teach? If not, what are PHNs' hours like, and do you think it would be possible to work as a PHN and teach on the side? Also, what kind of positions are available for master's prepared PHNs other than direct-care or teaching should I also consider? I'm really not interested in management (I feel like I'll be babysitting adults).

it's a different way of thinking. as clinicians, we think of interventions that affect one person. so you have to think at a population level, and sometimes what you would do as a first line intervention for an individual would not work as a mass intervention for a population. being able to think like that has been an adjustment for me. nursing coursework is a lot physiology/science. my program is in population and family health. my courses are in program planning, management, and substantive courses in maternal/child health. some of these substantive courses you don't learn to much from with a nursing background, however they challenge you think at a population level. i try to focus my electives around skills courses like demography and quantitative data analysis where you learn the statistical software. if want to study epi or biostats you will do more coursework in statistics, quantitative data analysis, and research methods. if i could do it all over again i would probably do epidemiology. there seem to more career options and you can take the electives in program planning and qualitative data analysis if you want to. i originally wanted to be a program manager when i started my degree. i am still interested in that, but from what i understand it's really competitive, so epi would give me more options after i graduate. from what i understand some epi people do go into management later on in their careers.

I'm doing the MPH at Columbia. I was going to do the dual degree with FNP program at the nursing school but decided not to. I think it will work out in the end.

Hi Bobbie. I decided to pursue an MPH. I'm in my second semester now and I really like my program. I'm looking to forward to graduating and working.

I am thinking about applying to msn/mph programs. I would like to earn a dnp some time in the future. Is the dnp reserved only for np's/crna's/cnm's or is this something a public health nurse can do? also i was originally thinking about doing a family nurse practitioner program with an mph, but my heart lies with public health rather than one-on-one pt care. I figure doing a msn program in community/public health nursing (with or without and mph, haven't decided yet) will better suit my interests, but i'm worried about the job outlook. seems like i would have more options as an fnp vs. aphn. also, i'd like to know what exactly and an aphn does? how is that different than a non-clinician with an mph or an RN with mph? any aphn's on allnurses? any thoughts/advice? you're help will be very much appreciated :-)