nitengale75

My name is Judy and I have been an RN for 34 years and a school nurse for 19 years. I have currently been the only nurse at our high school serving 1700 students for 16 years. It has been the best and most rewarding job I have every had. I work in Illinois so I am state certified but am dealing with a school board who now after 30 plus years has decided that certified school nurses need to go. They want to hire RN's and place them on the teacher assistant scale and pay them a mere pittance. There are 6 of us in my school district so keep us in your thoughts as we negotiate a new contract.

Thanks Martha! I knew you wouldn't let me down and would have some great advice as always.

I am looking for questions to ask potential applicants for school nursing positions. Any creative questions/ideas from this board? Thanks in advance for your help!

They are in any city, state, in the United States. I have an 18 year old junior student who is on her 3rd baby. No reason for it when my girls can go to the health department at age 12 and get free birth control without their parent's consent or knowledge. I believe it is a socio-economic issue. More babies equal more money. The situation goes full circle when you realize that most of your teen mothers came from teen moms themselves. Just a little rant I have every now and then.....

In my school, I do not expect the teacher to make a diagnosis of a health problem. However, I do expect the teacher to know who the frequent fliers are, who the students are who constantly want out of class (I am in a high school) and what is trivial. Trivial examples are picking a scab on the back of a pierced ear, a broken acrylic fingernail, peroxide for piercings, paper cuts, etc. After 16 years, I still love my job as a school nurse but sometimes am still amazed at teachers who send students out of their classrooms for anything and everything. I think that is what LPN 90 was trying to say about training teachers. No one has to worry about my feelings as a school nurse but sometimes I worry about how much education a student is receiving if he/she is constantly in my office. This post was not written to offend anyone but in fairness to all school nurses, I think our skin is thicker than worrying about teachers "worrying about the school nurse's feelings.

I have a high school of about 1600 students. I see between 30 and 40 students a day. I complained once to my mother that if I see one more student walk through my door I was going to scream. She reminded me that that's what I was hired to do. I have learned to not have a concrete agenda for the day because that's when the revolving door occurs. Some days are very light so that's when I get paper work done. I also have a plan period, just like the teachers, to get caught up on things without student interuption. After 16 years of school nursing, I have learned how to balance the student care with the never ending paper work.

I have been an R.N. since 1975 and a school nurse since 1990. Had I started as a school nurse right away I would be eligible for full retirement next year from the school district. However, my 14 years of dialysis and 1 year of surgery have given me the foundation to be a good school nurse. I don't think there is anything cut and dried as far as years of experience.

Most of the time I wear scrubs. Once in a while I will wear street clothes. I always wear my district picture ID. We require our high school students to wear visible ID's so I try to set the example by wearing mine.

I've been gone for a week for spring break and noticed all the replies. Here's is an update. I finally talked with Colleen Hurst who is a nurse investigator for the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation. She emphatically said that this practice is NOT within the scope of practice for an R.N. This came straight from the state. I went online to try and find some information and found her name and number. She was very pleasant but straightforward. I do not participate in this practice, but to those who do....just remember that you are in charge of your license, not the doctor who is asking you to do it.

Thanks for your reply. I do not participate in this practice, but I had a nurse tell me that she does. I even called a local pharmacy and was told that they accepted prescriptions written in this fashion. I've been an RN for 30 years and did not think that this was in the scope of our practice. I can't believe that a nurse or a doctor would want this kind liability in this day and age of lawsuits.

Can anyone tell me if the Illinois Nurse Practice Act now allows RN's (not APN's) to write prescriptions, sign the doctor's name and then slash it with his or her initials? I always thought this was outside our scope of practice, but apparently is being done state wide. I have e-mailed Illinois Department of Professional Regulation but so far have not received a response. I heard it took a long time to get information so I thought I would toss it out to the Illinois nurses.

I had my gallbladder removed in 1980. In 1998 I started having horrible chest pains. I was checked out from top to bottom with every test available. The pain was so bad that I went to the ER eleven times in 2 months! Everyone thought it was "stress" since I was going through a divorce. Well, a new doctor gave me orders to have my enzymes drawn the next time I presented myself to the ER. I asked her what she was looking for and she said problems with the common bile duct. Sure enough, the enzymes were slightly elevated so I was scheduled for an ERCP which recovered a stone out of my common bile duct. Plus, I was told that it looked like I had already passed a stone. So, don't rule out stones even though you may not have a gallbladder!

I feel so blessed because I have the best of both worlds. I was a hospital based nurse for 15 years and am now starting my 15th year as a school nurse. I never wanted to be anything but a nurse since first grade. It has been extremely rewarding for me. Everyone has "horror stories" about their professions. I was burned out after 15 years of hospital nursing when the door opened for me to go in to school nursing. I am certified in Illinois. I am a guest speaker for health classes, do sex ed and have taught prenatal classes. I reap the benefits of being on teacher's scale and make plenty of money so that I do not have to work a second job or jobs in the summer. School nursing is very rewarding. My passion is nursing. God blessed me with my job.

I am in central Illinois just south of you. We do not have standing orders for an epi-pen as we do not have a school physician. I do not even have any epi-pens for other students I could use. When I went to Boston 2 summers ago for my M.Ed., a school nurse from the Boston area had just lost a son, age 19 (I think). He had a peanut allergy and ate a nut he thought was safe. However, he started anaphylactic shock symptoms, administered his own epi-pen but died before 911 appeared while he was searching for a second pen. Please let us know if you find out any legalities regarding epi-pens.

That's great! It sounds like you only have to complete the school nurse internship and the state testing. Some districts do not place a certified school nurse on the teacher scale. And others will place you on the teacher's scale but with no years of experience for the salary. Let's face it. Some districts do not even have school nurses. I was lucky in that my district gave me 10 years experience on the pay scale. I will make no more than any other teacher with the same education credits.

I say go for it. Fifteen years as a school nurse but the first 15 in the hospital setting. I am so thankful for my education and my job. It is nice to get up every day and enjoy going to work. The students make it all worth while.

I have been an R.N. for 30 years. The first 14 were in dialysis and then a year in surgery. I have been a school nurse for 15 years. In Illinois, in order to be certified, you must have a Bachelor's Degree, take a few extra courses such as Educational Psychology and Education of the Exceptional Child, complete an internship in school nursing, and then take state testing for your speciality, which would be school nursing, and the basic skills test. Once all requirements are met, the state then issues you a Type 73 certificate. This certificate is what enables you to be on the teacher's pay scale. I recently completed my M.Ed. which put me much higher on the pay scale. Teachers are rewarded for the amount of education they pursue. I love school nursing. I use my nursing skills every day and am thankful for the first 15 years of hospital experience. It gave me a good foundation for making decisions in the school setting. By the way, I work at our high school and I see all kinds of health problems. We are already making plans for the survivors of Katrina. One of our middle schools already has 2 students from Lousiana. Each and every day is different and exciting! Sorry this is so long, but as you can see I am still passionate about my job.

I carry a Type 73 certificate in Illinois which places me on the teacher's pay scale. I have my M.Ed. and make roughly $60,000/year, 180 days/year which averages $333/day and $45/hour. I do not work any other job during the summer.

While working on my M.Ed., I had to write a thesis relevant to my job as a school nurse and education. Since my son was a wrestler and I worked with the wrestling team I chose to write about Safe Weight Management in Illinois High School Wrestlers. It was interesting research and great nursing involvement as I educated the wrestlers and their parents on food plans and the drastic effects of cutting weight on the human body. Just an idea as I, too, wanted a unique topic.

Health records are kept as a part of the permanent school file for many years (I think maybe 60 years), so your high school should have your records. If you have a large school district, the central administration office probably has the file.

Good Morning, Yes, I spent 5 weeks on campus 3 summers ago. It was great. I did not stay in the dorms, but rather rented a short term apartment with 2 other school nurses (much nicer). It took me exactly one year to complete my M.Ed. I transferred 12 credits, received the 15 while attending classes during the 5 weeks and did an ILP (independent learning project) and an online class to finish. I found a fantastic, easy way to do my 12 credits and had them completed in 10 weeks. Everything was worth it as far as experience, having my master's and going up on the pay scale. If you want more info feel free to message me. Judy

I am starting my 15th year as a school nurse and I always take the summer off with the exception of this summer. I worked summer school for 18 days. It was only 4 days a week and 4 hours per day. I take my salary over 26 pays so I get a paycheck every other week throughout the summer. Most of the school nurses I know take their pay this way in order to have income through the summer.

Thank you so much for this post. The first 15 years of my nursing were spent in the hospital. The last 15 have been as a school nurse. I have been fortunate to work for a district which compensated me for 10 years of nursing experience when they hired me. I have worked on my education and achieved a M.Ed. Now, I make 60K a year with the potential of making more if I add more college credits to my resume. But I feel I work hard for the money and put in many hours past "contractual time". I attend IEP's for the special needs students and write care plans for health problems. Young people today are on many medications and if I do not know what they are I have to look them up or call the pharmacy. I have found medication errors on the part of the pharmacy and the parents. I also attend many functions at my high school and make myself visible to show the students I care about them. This helps when I feel like I am only seeing my "frequent fliers". I also work with the staff on health issues and promoting healthy choices. And you are so right when you say "don't sell yourself short". As nurses, we are very fortunate to have many specialities to find our niche. I just wanted to thank the above poster for saying not to demean ourselves thinking teachers do more than school nurses. It is nice to be appreciated.

As a new grad in 1975, I signed to work dialysis. It was fairly new in the small hospital where I worked, so it was very exciting to be part of that team. We worked very closely with the ICU staff and never had problems when having to dialyze acutes. It was always exciting as new things developed back then. But after 14 years, I had had enough. You're right. Different viewpoints in patient care starting adding up. I was "old school" and the patient always came first. For instance, some of the new R.N.'s said their job was not to give bedpans. Plus, families wanted their loved ones dialyzed no matter what the condition. I transferred to surgery for one year. Big mistake! I took that for one year until I was asked if I would be interested in school nursing. So, after 15 years of hospital nursing, I jumped at school nursing. And 15 years later am still loving it. I use my nursing skills every day and do not have the E.R. as back-up. I see many, many health problems and more social problems than I can sometimes deal with on a daily basis. But I would never change it. I used to say that at least I would never lose my patients like I did in dialysis. But I have lost two students this year. Not at school, but the impact is still the same. You will find what excites you in nursing. Just don't give up.

I worked in dialysis from 1975 to 1989. I could do it in my sleep. But I was ready to leave after 14 years. I have been a certified school nurse for 15 years and just completed my M.Ed. 2 years ago. I have found that if I can not find something new to learn that I will be bored and burned out. So, I look for new things to learn, to do or just do differently in order to keep the fires of nursing burning. And yes, I considered myself an expert nurse in dialysis and currently an expert in school nursing.