TamiRN95

I currently am a school nurse in Indiana. I have held this position for almost 10 years. I started out at $12.30 per hour (leaving a float position in the hospital for which I was paid $20.00 per hour). My children were young then, and my priority was not money, but parenting. I was allowed to be with my children for holidays, summers, etc. (something all hospital nurses dream of). Now, my children are almost grown (1 in college and 1 a freshman in high school). Currently, I make $20.02 per hour (after almost 10 years). My hours are 7:30 to 3:00, and rarely, if ever do I work past 3:00. I do not get paid during the summers nor the holidays that I do not work (i.e., I get 2 weeks off at Christmas, 1 week at Spring Break,etc.). I work in a large middle school with approximately 750 students. I enjoy my job, but find certain issues very frustrating. Since the school is the teachers "domain", nurses are not necessarily regarded as the professionals that they indeed are. I had one teacher ask me if I was "real nurse", and if I had to go to school to learn school nursing. I enjoy my job, and feel that my position as a school nurse is an integral part of the whole plan of offering children the best education possible. Many times, the nurses in our corporation are the only medical individuals that students have access to. We are usually the first line of defense in identifying students at risk from a health pespective, and we are usually the last line of defense that insures that the issues that affect our students medically are ultimately resolved and continue to be monitored. Over my 10 years of school nursing, I have yet to understand why school nurses are not more highly regarded from a professional perspective.