Recommended experience for school nursing

[JustEnuff2BDangerous, BSN, RN]

I have recently become intensely interested in being a school nurse, and am curious what kind of hospital experience you would recommend for someone wanting to become a school nurse. I have one year medical-surgical experience. In your opinion, is med-surg experience more or less valuable than, say, a year in the ER would be for the aspiring school nurse?

[bergren]

Because ER would include emergency situations and resuscitation, some peds and assessment when you have no other information about a patient, it would probably be more valuable than straight adult med surg. Principals love school nurses with ER experience. Peds experience would be incredibly beneficial for assessment, developmental issues, parent relationships, typical medications, and more. Public health experience would also be helpful. Camp nursing also.

[mustlovepoodles, RN]

I strongly agree with the PP. If you can get some ER experience it will hold you in good stead. Taking care of children can be tricky. It is not unusual for them to not be able to describe their complaint. Or they'll focus on the wrong complaint. In my elementary school 50% of the students speak Spanish as a first language. THey barely know how to say it in Spanish, you can forget about English! Sometimes I feel like a detective trying to ferret out the REAL problem.

Your med-surg will be helpful for working with chronic illnesses, although children's chronic illnesses are very different from adults, even if they share the same illness. Spending some time in ER will sharpen your assessment skills and your diagnositic skills, and give you experience with children(very important, IMO). I know that nurses don't diagnose, but as a school nurse you'll be "diagnosing" plenty--lice, ear aches, sore throats, scabies, lacerations, head injuries, suspected child abuse. And as a school nurse you will be treating not only the kids, but the adults, too. Anything that can happen in a hospital can, and does, happen at school!