WDW1971

I know this is kind of an old thread, but in case anyone from north TX reads this, it depends on the district. I have worked in 3 different districts over the years. Some districts will only hire nurses with a BSN. Some districts employ nurses with associates degrees. Some districts have LVN's. Some have health aides. I know of one district that has all of the above. A lot of districts, though, seem to be moving to only hiring BSN nurses to fill empty positions. The reason for BSN over ADN is probably that all other school district professionals (e.g. teachers, librarians, counselors) must have bachelor's degrees at the bare minimum, and school nurses here are almost always on the same level/pay-scale as other district professionals.

I graduated from nursing school in May 1995 and never worked in a hospital after my nursing school/nurse tech time. I pretty much went straight into school nursing, and had no problems adjusting. During nursing school I had enjoyed my community health rotations so much more than acute care, and I was looking for some sort of public health nursing position. Dallas Public Schools placed an ad in the newspaper in October, and a week later I was working as a school nurse. I loved it. The only drawback for me is that now I do not want to work full time. While I know they exist in some places, I have been unable to find an available job-sharing school nursing position. 3 years ago I resigned from my full-time school nurse position, and I began substituting. Unfortunately subbing only pays $80 a day (!!), which is only about 40% of what I was making full-time. So I have now begun working PRN for my allergy/asthma doctor for much better pay. I just can't be part of a situation any longer where nurses (and teacher substitutes) are so underpaid. It's even worse in some places. So back to your question - You are plenty prepared to be a school nurse. You are going to have the reverse problem from what I am experiencing. I'm accustomed to being pretty much an independent practitioner, but I have very limited skills as far as injections, IV's, etc., go. You, on the other hand, may have tons of experience with the hands-on part of nursing, but may be used to working as part of a team instead of independently. I'm pretty sure we can both adjust, though :). Go for it. School nursing really is an absolutely wonderful and rewarding career.

Wow. That is great. The majority of school districts here, as far as I know, make every new professional staff member (and probably paraprofessional, too) start at square one on the pay scale no matter how many years of experience the person has outside of education. That is wonderful that your district credited you with some of your years of valuable nursing experience.

I didn't intend to demean the work of the school nurse. I meant that simply as factual information, and not as a slight toward school nursing. I was simply stating that in general a school nurse ends up devoting fewer hours a week to the job than many teachers do, but for the same amount of money. On most days I got there at 7:45 and left at 3:45, and I never took any work home. It would be unusual for a teacher to be able to do that every day. As far as the value of the job is concerned, when a school nurse's job gets serious (and those scary days definitely happen!), it is usually much more of an acute crisis than anything a teacher will ever encounter. However, a school could not exist without teachers. Many schools exist without a nurse .

Glolilly - I completely understand your desire for a change. It sounds like school nursing would be a great fit for you. I am 34 and married, but we don't have kids and don't know if we even want to have any. Working evenings actually sounds good to me because I don't like getting up early and working the same schedule day after day. I guess we are kind of at opposite places in our careers. The school nurse schedule would be perfect for you. And it really is a great job. In fact, there is a good chance that I might end up doing it again because the hours and weeks off are great. Also it is nice to develop longer-term relationships with your clients (the students and staff) instead of just seeing them for a few minutes or hours, then never seeing them again. Around here it seems that one of the best ways to get involved in school nursing is to get in there and substitute for school nurses. A lot of times when a district has a nursing position come open, they will hire one of their substitutes full-time. The pay for substituting is not great (and is worse in some places than others), but if you can afford the drastic pay cut, it could be your way into finding your own school nursing job. Around here, a school full-time nurse makes the same pay as a teacher. Most likely, though, if you are hired as a full-time employee you will start at the first pay level for that school district. I have not seen any district that credits people for years they have worked in non-educational jobs. I don't know where you live, but around here that starting pay would be somewhere between $30 and $40K a year depending on the district. It is actually not bad money at all for nurses. For teachers, however, who must grade papers, make bulletin boards, make tests, go to all kinds of evening stuff, etc., the "hourly" rate is not nearly as good as it is for the nurse. Now as far as what a school nurse does. . . Everyone always thinks about the part of the job where kids come in for injuries, illnesses, or medicines. And in big schools, that stuff will keep you hopping. But some people thinks that is all a school nurse does. However, keeping track of immunizations is another big part, as is vision, hearing, dental, and scoliosis screening. Another big part is more geared toward counseling. I found that probably half of what I did with high school students was just simply talking to them (and that is why I REALLY liked that job). LOTS of kids need attention or have non-health-related problems they need help with, and for some reason the nurse is a person that most students are comfortable with. Another thing many elementary nurses do is go into the classrooms occasionally to do some health teaching (hygiene, growth & development, etc). I have also been on attendance committees, building committees, and other various non-nursing-related teams. I also was the one who found dry clothes for kids on rainy days, fixed broken glasses and zippers, helped people with their computers, and performed other handy-man kind of things. Depending on the school and your co-workers, it can be a very fun job. Based on what you have said about yourself, I think it might be a great fit for you :). Heck - based on what I've said it sounds like it would be a great fit for me :chuckle. But if I decide to stick with it, I need to find a junior high or high school for a change. I am more of a "big kids" kind of person.

No problem :). I know all kinds of internet abbreviations, but I'm not familiar enough with the many hospitals in the DFW area to have known whether JPH was a hospital or not. And I decided it was quicker just to ask :).

Wow! $200. Sounds like it would be a VERY helpful class, though. Okay - what is JPH short for?

Kim - Thank you. But are you talking about the continuing education nurse refresher course RNSG 1006? I called TCC yesterday to ask about it because it wasn't listed on the schedule. I had to leave a message, but someone from the nursing school (I think) called me back and left me a message. She told me that it isn't being offered this fall, that they are going to revamp it, and that it will be offered in the spring. She said to call her back in about a month and a half if I am still interested in the class. One thing I don't want to end up doing is sitting in a classroom learning about the nursing process . Nothing against the nursing process, but it is definitely not what I need refreshing on.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, everyone :). I guess it's the fact that it's been 10 years since I graduated combined with the fact that I never did any hospital work after school that has me concerned. But you are right in that I developed valuable skills as a school nurse that I tend to forget about (e.g. assessment skills, communication skills, computer skills). Now I just need a place willing to work with me on the hands-on stuff. But it is still scary. I called a local college here in Fort Worth about a refresher course they offer, but they are not offering it again until the spring. So it's time to start calling around to some facilities and hitting some job fairs. Krista

I graduated with a BSN in 1995 and went straight into a position as a school nurse in Dallas. School nursing was something that I had wanted to do since I had started nursing school. Over a period of 7 years I worked for 3 different school districts, and I loved my 2nd job which was in a terrific high school. My husband and I moved in 1999, and my most recent full-time job was in a 4th-6th grade school. After 3 years of working there full-time, I grew quite bored with the common needs of elementary school age children (mostly "boo-boo" care). I resigned from full-time work 3 years ago. For the last 3 years I have been occasionally substituting and volunteering for the nurses in the school district where I used to work. The problem with substituting for school districts is that it only pays around $80 a day - less than half of what I was making full-time. I still have a place for school nursing in my heart, and if I could find a job-share situation or a full-time high school position I might decide to re-enter that profession. But I was so bored sitting in an elementary school clinic for 3 years, even on busy days. After 10 years I am still trying to decide if nursing was even the right career choice for me. In some ways I feel like such a failure because since graduating from nursing school, I have never really learned to do the things that people tend to think all nurses can do. I am mostly talking about some of the hands-on skills that I never needed to use in the school setting, and never really learned to do in BSN school. I think I might actually enjoy the faster pace of hospital work, and also the flexibility of scheduling. But because I never developed some of the basic hands-on nursing skills, I am petrified of going back into the hospitals 10 years after graduating from a nursing school that was VERY theory-based. No offense to LVNs, but I kind of feel like I need to go to LVN school first . I am just curious to hear from other nurses. Has anyone ever been in this situation, or seen another nurse go from years of non-hospital work into the hospital setting? Especially someone who never really had much hands-on hospital experience to begin with?

School nursing is a great career. It is interesting working with different types of people, the hours are good, the vacation is nice, and the pay is not bad (esp. when compared to the hours that a teacher works for the same pay). Best of luck to you in your studies, Todie :). Just keep working hard and I'm sure you will be able to achieve your goals.

Will your district pay to have a nurse substitute in your clinic? I don't know if all districts will, but most around here will. The trouble is that not many nurses want to substitute. The district I work for pays $80 a day for professional subs. Same as for a substitute teacher, but much less than half of what I made per day full time. It is okay, though, since I am not the primary income source for my family and for occasional work to which I can always say "no" to. But I know that many districts don't pay that much. If I were getting much less than that a day, I probably wouldn't do it. But I am lucky in a way that I can sub in the clinics. I can't even imagine trying to substitute in a classroom full of kids at $80 or less a day. One option for finding some nurses is to have your school or district put out some kind of notice that you are looking for LVNs/LPNs/RNs to substitute in the school clinics. There might be some stay-at-home parents who are also nurses who wouldn't mind filling in and earning some extra money now and then. Another option is to try to find some retired nurses who want to work occasionally. It is definitely not easy finding substitute nurses.

I have worked for 3 different school districts in the DFW area. It just depends on the district. I am not positive, but I think the policy in Texas is that each district must have 1 RN. Other than that, the decision on how to hire is up to the local district. My first job was in the Dallas Public Schools. When I worked there, they only hired BSN's, but they did hire new graduates. That may still be the case. I quit working there after a couple of years just because I didn't like the some things about my school (including the distance to my home), but DPS did have a great nurse education program. I worked in Coppell ISD for 2 years, and loved working at the high school there. It has been a few years since I left there (I moved to Fort Worth), but they had nurses (from LVN to BSN) on staff. I am not sure if the LVN's were on the same pay scale as the RNs or BSNs, though. It is possible they could have been on the aide's pay scale as an attempt on the district's part to save money. I really can't remember. But it is a great district to work in as far as pay and benefits go. I also worked in Kennedale for 3 years, and I still sub in the nurse's offices there. Kennedale has 5 schools and only hires RNs. Some have their BSN and some don't. One of the best things I can recommend if you want to get into school nursing is to sign up to substitute. Many districts will hire their substitutes on full-time when positions come open.