Returned to school nursing for good!

Published

I'm back into school nursing where I intend on staying this time! I had a case of the grass being greener elsewhere. I had only worked one year in the hospital before becoming a school nurse for almost 10 yrs. I missed the hustle and bustle of a hospital and the pay so I returned only to last six months. I found out I'm where I'm meant to be with school nursing. Here are the things I now appreciate that I had taken for granted. I can now sleep in an extra hour since I no longer have to be at work at the crack of dawn. I may be busy but at least I have time to take bathroom breaks and I can actually sit down part of the day. I can now count on being home on time every day and still have enough energy to function after work. I don't constantly have doctor's or supervisors breezing in telling me what to do and yelling at me (literally) for not doing something the way they like. I don't have supervisors giving the butt-kissers a requested day off instead of me. I'm more than an extra body. I get to be in charge of my own office space. I get to feel a true sense of accomplishment when I help a child feel better or refer them for something their parents had no idea about. I get to work with and develop a relationship with the kids and watch them grow and enjoy the funny things they come up with. Everything is not life and death all the time. The day is much calmer even on my busiest day. I get snow days, summers, weeks at holidays, weekends, and nights off with no call-outs. I was getting burned out on the lice, parents who either didn't care enough or so much they bugged me all the time, not always being respected, etc-all the reasons we post about being frustrated but that is a walk in the park compared to all the BS you have to deal with in the hospital. I'm glad I took the chance to try something else so I could appreciate what I wasn't sure about. School nursing is not perfect and it is a job but it can be a good one. I no longer crave so much hustle and bustle and feel so much better that I can be there for my family. I hope this encourages someone!:)

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

welcome back! glad you found your niche

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Amen to all of this! I am probably going to have to step away from School Nursing for a couple years while focusing on babies, but there is nothing in the world that can pull me back to the hospital setting! My worst day as a School Nurse was still better than a night shift on a crazy floor.

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Purple Scrubs I took several years off to raise my babies and had no trouble getting back into it. I don't regret it at all!

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Specializes in Med-Surg; Telemetry; School Nurse pk-8.
My worst day as a School Nurse was still better than a night shift on a crazy floor.

I agree!!!

And to Nurse ABC -- welcome back!

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