momto5RN

My heart feels for you!!! First, congratulations on the new little one!! I have five children and can relate to this. It's not easy to pump at work...to find the time or a place to do it. I did it for a little bit when I worked as a school nurse twice a day in a closet. It was rough! I also know that feeling of having to leave your babies to go back to work. This country does stink in regards to maternity leave/families/breast feeding. I still hate leaving my children and my youngest is 18 months old. My suggestion is maybe try a skilled nursing facility/rehab. Not the best or most desirable place to work ( I did it for a while at night). But it is experience and they will probably be able to give you part time or even per diem work. I wish you the best!! Take it easy on yourself!! You have a lot on your plate. You need to be kind to yourself and not get burnt out with mom duties and work life.

Hello!!!! Love seeing this post....i am a former school nurse as well! I resigned from my school nurse job in June after working two school years. I started outpatient dialysis right before Halloween. Still on orientation and will be until about the middle of January. Not much advice to give since I'm new at this but I'll tell you what the nurses always say to me on the floor. Love the machine. Get to know how that machine works. Wishing you the best!

Hope you don't mind me jumping in as well but I left school nursing as well after two school years and just started working as a dialysis nurse. Holy crap, it is information overload!!! I feel like I am in nursing school all over again and even have a 100 question exam after my 8 weeks of training are done after Christmas. I'm not too sure if I like it yet. Bonus is that it pays well and has decent health insurance. I just miss my little students so much! I also live in NJ. I am not school nurse certified. I know public schools here require that. But private schools in NJ don't or at least the one I worked in did not. They just required an RN. I plan to eventually go back for the BSN and school nurse certificate. Wishing you the best!! Congratulations on the wedding!!

Hello to my favorite Nurses out there!!! Just wanted to give an update....so it has been a crazy few weeks! My little one ended up back into the hospital after a complication from her kidney surgery. And because life loves to throw me lemons non-stop that is also when I had a second interview scheduled for the dialysis position! It was tough because I did not want to leave my little one in the hospital alone so I could make it to the interview. My husband was at home with the rest of our children and we never can get help. But it was a miracle, my mom was able to leave work early so she could watch the children. My husband and I swapped places (the hospital where we were at is an hour away from where we live and the interview!). My daughter was alone for maybe forty minutes but they have fabulous nurses (nurses really are the best!!) and a huge playroom for the kids to play in so she didn't even notice that I snuck out for a bit. Drove in rush hour traffic and had enough time to throw myself together very quickly and make it to my second interview which I am excited to say I was offered the position to be a dialysis RN!! Super nervous but am hoping so much that I will learn a lot and that I will enjoy it! Two of my girls have kidney conditions so I'm hoping to be able to help other patients and give them the best of care like we received when my girls were having issues. Any school nurses out there that have experience with dialysis?? Hope everyone is doing well and that the teachers and students aren't being too much on all of you! I still love reading this board!

This breaks my heart!! Hang in there, please, it really is a great job in nursing!! Now I'm going to sound like a hypocrite but that is why I left my school nurse position after two school years this past June. Now, that it is NOT to say I will never return to school nursing because I totally will...in the future!! But, I worked in a small Catholic school and the administrator was a Nun!!!! She had ZERO clue what my role was about and we got into a heavy debate about a student that was suicidal. I knew no matter what I said, she would not understand at all where I was coming from. So I resigned. She was completely unprofessional in every sense of the word and did not appreciate the times where I was truly needed.....student with syncope, concussions, broken bones, asthma attacks, etc, etc. I left graciously as I did with every other job I have had and she hardly responded to me. Also, I am still new to nursing and want to learn as much as I can so I felt it was a good time for me to leave and explore other options. With all this said, I know where you are coming from and everyone above is exactly right! Hang in there and enjoy those children! They are what makes the job the best (and the schedule of course!!!). Give it some time!

Great job, Jen!!! OldDude, you are amazing, I find your posts to be awesome!! Miss being in a school nurse's office!

Hello School Nurses!! Just wanted to stop in and say hello!! Hope everyone is off to a great start!! I miss being a school nurse. If it weren't for the crappy administration and lack of decent health insurance, I would still be one. I had to go into two of my daughter's school today. One I had to take out early because of a dental appointment. The other kiddo had her first day of kindergarten today. She had surgery on her kidney on the actual first day of school (the 5th) and was out for two weeks from the pain and voiding blood. She is back to herself and doing pretty good! I had to talk to her school nurse just to let her know everything that went on as well as drop off all the documentation from the surgeon so her absences can be excused. It really made me miss being in my own clinic and on this board! I still read though whenever I get the chance. And someday, I WILL return to school nursing. I love it and being away from it confirms to me that school nursing is where my heart is. I have an interview tomorrow for dialysis nursing (have an interest in the renal system since two children out of my five were born with kidney conditions). Wish me luck, I'm terrible at interviews, I break out in hives!

Be safe!!!! Please, please evacuate!!! My family was hit by Hurricane Sandy almost five years ago and everyone in my neighborhood stayed but us. We had three small children at the time and lived right on the bay. We did not want to take that chance. It's the storm surge you have to be concerned about. We had 4 feet of water in our house!! We lived in a small hotel room for an entire month after the storm. I was in my second semester of nursing school and remember studying by flashlight (no electricity for weeks after it hit us!!). Then onto three rentals. We are still displaced while rebuilding our home from scratch. Wishing you and all those in the path as well as those in Texas and Montana with the wildfires all the best. This has just been awful lately with the natural disasters.

You are absolutely right to do an assessment on all your patients. I remember during my preceptorship in nursing school, my preceptor laughed in my face when I asked her if she listens to lung sounds post respiratory treatment. Her response was, I only did that as a new nurse. I also noticed this during my first nursing job a few years back. Even had a nurse tell me to "cut corners." I just don't get it.....

Can I still join in with all of you fabulous nurses?! I was going to make a separate post and maybe some day I will, but I resigned as school nurse at the private school I worked at the day after school got out in June. This was not planned and it is a long story as to why I felt this was the best decision. Basically boils down to not being supported by the administration, job securement and needing better health insurance for my family. I'm completely heartbroken as I truly enjoyed the children and most of the staff (ha!) as well as the support from this message board. So I'm now unemployed currently trying to figure out where to go next in my nursing journey. I'm thinking of giving dialysis a go. Anyone have experience in this?! I also wanted to enjoy the summer with my five little munchkins especially my youngest who will turn ONE in October. I hope you all don't mind me sticking around!! I truly enjoyed this board and all of the help/advice. I intend to go back for a BSN in the future as well as become school nurse certified to eventually work in the public school districts which should be better than the private school I worked at. Wishing all of you fabulous school nurses an incredible school year!!!! I will be watching from the sidelines!!!

Oh my heavens....I was just sent a student complaining of discomfort with his left pinky because a stuffed animal hit it. What has this world come too?! And it was the guidance counselor who sent him. I'm done! 7 more days, 7 more days!!!!!!

After today is done, I have 8 more days till school is done. Trying to catch up on some documenting and organizing my office for next year. Curious, do you undo your entire office for maintenance crews to clean during summer?

Definitely a second home at my school!! I work in a small school. I pretty much know every student's name. Problem is, I have seen majority of them during the school year! Some students have been here 30 times. One student is at 54 visits this year! Can't wait to be done! 9 more days and then the only complaints I'll be dealing with are from my own kids!

One of my own lovely children has poison ivy on her leg and went to see the school nurse for calamine lotion. She sent home a note that didn't make sense to me. She wrote, if the rash gets worse a visit to the MD is recommended. That part was fine, I usually recommend the same to my students at school. Then underneath it, she wrote, must have an MD note to return to school. This was two days ago and my daughter found the note in her folder and forgot to give it to me. She is fine. A little itchy but fine. Do other schools require a doctor note for poison ivy?

Wow, that is pretty awesome!! Good for you!! What did you have to do to win?!:)