Questions about office nursing!

Published

I was curious about the following questions:

Is it hard to take time off if your child wakes up sick?

How stressful or busy is it?

What time do you get home? Do you get paid if you have to work over?

Do you enjoy your job?

Are you challenged professionally and feel you are growing and learning as a nurse?

I'm currently working as a school nurse part-time and was considering moving to something a little more permanent. Where I'm at is very family friendly. I'm always home by 4pm, it's not too stressful, no one gives you a hard time if you need to call off sick for any reason, I do get lots of time off with snow days, week long breaks, holidays, summers, etc BUT I don't get paid for them either which makes it hard at times. I do miss working with other medical personnel. Here I'm in a sea of teachers/educational staff that don't really understand all that I do aside from taking temps and putting bandaids on. I don't really feel challenged most of the time so even though I can be very busy I am still bored at times.Most of my day is spent passing out routine meds, assisting the diabetics with insulin administration, checking for head lice, assessing kids who feel sick, first-aid, lots of paperwork, routine vision/hearing screenings, etc. We do a lot more but that's mainly what I'm doing the most of on a day-to-day basis. I do really get sick of seeing kids who I know there is nothing wrong with-that just want out of class but their teacher insists they be checked. That's the biggest time waster. My husband works shift work so I have no desire to return to a hospital setting. There is a busy medical practice accepting applications at this time so I was considering applying but I don't want to jump into anything if it's not much different from what I'm doing. I never wake up and think I can't wait to go to work-it's usually indifference. I would love to have a job that I'm excited about but maybe that's asking too much. Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-surg, OB, school nursing.

I'm curious too! Anyone??

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Well I'm not a nurse but I am a CMA and have worked in a few MD's offices.

Most offices have people to fill-in when someone is out(my job) so it usually isn't a problem to call in.

Sometimes it can be very stressful but in my opinion it is rarely stressful. It really depends on your coworkers, the patient load, and the doctors. We have some MD's that see 10 patients and others that see close to 30 in a day.

If I am working for a doc I leave when the last patient leaves, if all my work is done, so it depends on when the last patient is and how complicated the patient is. It is usually 5-5:30. They prefer us not to work any overtime if possible but when we do we get overtime pay(anything over 40hrs per week only-not anything over 8hrs per day)

I do enjoy my job and absolutely love the people and the docs I work with.

I am a CMA and I don't feel challenged. I give injections and educate pt's on how to administer them, do vitals, room pts, take phone mssgs and give simple advice, the normal stuff. We have a lab so none of the nurses do phlebotomy but some places will require it. It is very monotonous for me.

It sounds as though working in a MD's office is about what you are doing now except for most offices provide vacation days. There are a lot of clinics that work on weekends though so watch out because they will often rotate the nurses so one doesn't have to work the weekends all the time.

All the offices that I worked at had no more than one RN. They usually did research, supervision, or triage.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

When my children were young I tried to have an alternate plan for my mildly ill child...you know, the one who is not well enough to go to school but is clearly going to recover unscathed.

As an RN in an ambulatory setting I interacted with every patient who came in for an MD visit. Some came in and interacted with me and did not see the physician. If your position is directly interacting with patients, your absence for a child's illness will be felt!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thanks for the feedback guys! It does sound similar to what I'm doing now and maybe not enough difference to pursue. I'll have to think on it some more...

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I have done both school nursing and office nursing.

For office nursing in some cases like mine, you are the only nurse.

This made getting time off a problem. At the time we had two

very busy FP Mds , one MA and one nurse(me).

For some reason office nursing is often looked upon as easy,

but you are on your feet and moving 99 % of the day.

some days can be lighter, but most are very busy, often stressful

depending upon your setting.

Most days I worked 9 am- 5:30pm except for the late day which was

1pm- 8 pm.

I loved office nursing, Family Practice is interesting and you get to keep

current in healthcare for infant through seniors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For school nursing one avenue my friend and I found helpful for frequent

flyers and fakers to the nursing office was:

our official title was School Nurse Teacher. When a group would present

at the door (grade school or HS-we were subs), we would ask all students

to go back to class and get a book/assignment to read while waiting for

the nurse. Our health office was a classroom as well, so a quiet environment

was set by this limit setting. We found the fakers/frequent flyers (no med issues)

would depart and return to class, leaving the true students who needed assessment.

The Principals loved it,and for us subs added that the student who needed to

go home had to leave from their office.

Inappropriate foot traffic dropped considerably....

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Jahra-which specialty do you like the best-school or office nursing? Just wondering which you would prefer to work. I don't mind being busy-makes the day go faster. Thanks for your reply!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I found both interesting work. Family practice was very busy. You

care for the spectrum of patients from infant to senior, had to keep up all your skills.

I liked the pace and it was a different experience every day. At the time, I lived on on island (connected with bridges), so especially in the summer some emergency situations presented to us first.

Our MD loved to teach, so it was a nice atmosphere to grow in.

I loved school nursing, but I would have to say I personally would favor family practice.

In school nursing, at times you can feel isolated from your RN peers as you are more on your own...

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thanks for your insight! I definitely understand the feeling alone as a school nurse and I don't like that at all! I may go ahead and try office nursing if the opportunity arises. I think I would enjoy it as well!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

That's great! Good luck! It is a win/win situation. There are many things you can bring

back from office nursing to school nursing so it is a wonderful opportunity to give

office nursing a try. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions..

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion