Question for rural community school nurses?

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Hi. This is my 3rd year as a school nurse. I also have a bachelor's degree in nursing. Although this is quite a change from my previous work as a nurse, I do enjoy it. Plus the hours are great for family. I just wonder how other nurses who are in smaller school districts (not as much funding) get along? My office is an (at best) 10x10 room with an extremely old dr's office bed, 2 file cabinets and a desk. I feel like I am not able to work to my potential because of my "clinic's" inadequacies. Plus privacy is a MAJOR issue. My "closet office" is located inside our grade school office where everyone see's and know's what is going on and talks about it. Now on to a more personal concern... the pay. I have a bachelor's degree but am not on teacher's salary. So therefore, no raises except cost of daily living. Now I realize this job is much less stressful and less hours than a hospital, but I feel that for what I bring to the school district I should atleast be on teacher's salary. Please help me with any advice or info! Thanks!

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It is time for you to talk with your Superintendent!!!

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Your right. I need to get tougher. I've talked with him over a different room but honestly there is nowhere to go. Our school is so cramped that literally every closet is used for something else! However, my flash of hope is I will start teaching next year a health ocupations class as well as a CNA class so I'm hoping the teacher's salary will come with that bump! Wish me luck! Thanks for replying

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My working situation isn't the best either. I have a brand new office which I love on my primary campus. Our district has 4 campuses. It is 12 miles from one Elem. to the other with the HS and Jr. High being in the middle. I don't have offices at the other campuses and I'm station at one campus where I stay full time because we have a diabetic here. I am still responsible for the other campuses. I don't like this responsibility not ever being able to be there. I'm sure you know as well as I do that when you are at a campus full time your schedule tends to fill up with all kinds of duties which makes it hard to take care of other campuses. Sometimes I feel very overwelmed! Until they pass a law requiring schools to have a nurse on every campus or 1 nurse per 500 students we will continue to be pushed to the side, viewed as being less important:bugeyes: and treated as such.

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Specializes in Cath Lab, OR, CPHN/SN, ER.
Hi. This is my 3rd year as a school nurse. I also have a bachelor's degree in nursing. Although this is quite a change from my previous work as a nurse, I do enjoy it. Plus the hours are great for family. I just wonder how other nurses who are in smaller school districts (not as much funding) get along? My office is an (at best) 10x10 room with an extremely old dr's office bed, 2 file cabinets and a desk. I feel like I am not able to work to my potential because of my "clinic's" inadequacies. Plus privacy is a MAJOR issue. My "closet office" is located inside our grade school office where everyone see's and know's what is going on and talks about it. Now on to a more personal concern... the pay. I have a bachelor's degree but am not on teacher's salary. So therefore, no raises except cost of daily living. Now I realize this job is much less stressful and less hours than a hospital, but I feel that for what I bring to the school district I should atleast be on teacher's salary. Please help me with any advice or info! Thanks!

Start gathering data. I don't know what you're having to track and everything right now. We track how many kids we see, what we see them for, and a ton of other stuff. The data can PROVE to your bosses what an great resource a school nurse is. They might not understand yet how important the nurses are in keeping absences down, improving EOG scores, controlling communicable disease, staff health... By keeping up with the numbers, you can show them why you need the extra space/privacy/pay.

I don't know much about the teachers salary- I work through the health dept.

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