Salary Or Lack Thereof !!!!!!!!

[manettohillnurse]

hi everybody. my name is sylvia and i'm a school nurse. is there anybody out there who's as disgusted as i am about how we are treated and how little our salaries are? my custodian earns more than i do and gets a uniform allowance to boot. teachers regard us as first aiders who sit on our duffs doing nothing but applying bandaids. i'm sorry that my 1st posting is negative, but a new contract was just negotiated in my district and none of the nurses' concerns were even put on the table.

[live_N_scrubs]

I just started as a school nurse in Utah. In my county, the school district contracts the county health department for it's school nurses. Because of this, we get better pay and benefits than the teachers. I have also found that we are highly respected by all of the school staff. The drawback to all of these great benefits is that I have 7 elementary schools all together. I write all of the careplans for students who have any type of chronic illnesses such as asthma, anaphylaxis, diabetes, feeding tube, etc. I train secretaries and teachers on how to do BGM's and provide emergency in the event of a diabetic siezure or anaphylaxis. So I teach them how and when to give glucagon or an epi-pen. The schools, parents and myself have to work as a team to provide a safe environment for a student. The reality is, the school district cannot afford to pay for every school to have a nurse. I just found out that starting salary for a teacher in our district is only $28,000!!!

So everyday, I travel to different schools, talk with the staff and students, give presentations and work on new care plans that come my way. The good news is, the county approved for 4 more FT school nurses in the elementary level, so that will decrease my schools 3. My job sounds overwhelming to most people, but it really isn't. I truely enjoy what I do.