Struggling with poor pay and a love for School Nursing

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In my area of the state school nurses are extremely under paid. My particular school district is the worst of all the surrounding districts by thousands of dollars a year. We are $15,000-20,000 below the bottom of the pay scale for other Registered Nurses in the area, not working in the school setting. The nurses in my district have been advocating for better pay. I personally, fully support this effort. Lately though, I have been struggling with what I am going to do if the increase to the nursing pay scale is not approved by our school board. It has been turned down before.

In my state nurses are not mandatory in schools, so districts have no incentive to make pay competitive or even on the same playing field. I am feeling very taken advantage of, in light of all that I have learned lately in preparation for advocating for better pay. I truly love my job. I have been a nurse for ten years and this has been my favorite place to work. Any advice on how to proceed?

Specializes in Cardiology, School Nursing, General.

Just putting my 2 cents in.

I'm just a CMA as a medical aide here. While we already all discussed my current situation on the employer I'm with, I'm honestly proud and glad on where I am now.

I'm only 26 years old, and before I was a CMA, I was working in Retail for 7 years. I was going to college, but not really aiming in anything, thus costing me almost 24K of student loans. I didn't think much of it until my sister-in-law passed and left my aging parents and I, two really small children with no mother and basically abandoned by their father (My brother). So I basically was a stay-at- home mom for a year at least, when I saw how hard our situation was because of the death, the debt my parents had since the 90s because they didn't know anything about credit cards, my debt and my brother constant idiotic asking for money and not wanting to work.

So at that moment, I was winning probably $8.50/hr at Walmart and Old Navy for my years of service with them, but not enough to pay for my debts and my parents for house needs. I didn't even have my license, let alone a car!

I then decided I was going back to school but do a technical career that I can finish quick and get a job fast. I looked online and saw Radiology and MA. I tried Radiology, but I failed their test (Something with shapes) and the math portion (Before I knew I had ADD and Acalculia). So I then thought of trying MA program. I did my test and turned in my results and did my paperwork. Out of 80 students who applied, only 25 were accepted and I was the top 10. I got in and with the help of my parents got in the program.

I will tell you this, that program was basically boot camp. My teacher was strict and hard on me because I wasn't her favorite and would love to talk us down when we did wrong on tests. But I worked my butt off and did my best, which in the end I got honors and passed the whole course. As well passing the CMA exam on the first try.

My first job at the cardiology office was the worse experience ever. Co-workers were horrible, didn't like me. My boss would write me up for EVERYTHING and I was basically treated like I was like dirt and dumb, doing minmal errands, for $12.50/hr. I was stressing horribly and was taking anxiety medication for this job. When I saw that I was just popping pills for a stupid job, I started to look for a job. I got fired because at the end of the day, everyone left and I was left there to clean. I was done and I was on my computer looking for a job because I don't have a printer at home. I was printing out some resumes and looking for jobs, when one my co-workers came back for something she forgot. She saw me and told the office manager on me. I got fired that very day, but I was so happy because I was finally gone from that place.

I went to work for a while, but I was so mentally exhausted from this place, I just couldn't. So I took a break for a month or so, and went back to look for a job, which then I found this job and I got it.

While yes, I'm only making $14.21/hr, making only 21,000K a year, I'm grateful for this. I'm able to help my parents out and earn some money for myself.

I want to go back to school to be an RN, and work my butt off to be a real school nurse. I understand being underpaid, I am for this type of job, but It's honestly better than I used to get paid and I'm almost done paying off my debt.

I do wish you luck and hopefully you get paid for what you are worth.

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Specializes in kids.
I would have an issue with being paid less than others doing the same job as I do also. I'd be interested to know the reason for the discrepancy.

Years in the district, degree level? A few possibilities.

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In recent weeks though, I have found out that I am paid less than all the other nurses in the district my thousands of dollars a year.

Years in the district, degree level? A few possibilities.

Those could be possible reasons. It wasn't specified so I took it to mean that it was with comparable employees.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Telemetry, Skilled, School Nursing.
Those could be possible reasons. It wasn't specified so I took it to mean that it was with comparable employees.

I am an ADN with many years of experience. There is a difference in the education level and experience, however the ADN pay scale is the same as the LPN pay scale for the district. So I am not even in a similar range as the other RNs, which is the cause of the large gap.

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Specializes in kids.
I am an ADN with many years of experience. There is a difference in the education level and experience, however the ADN pay scale is the same as the LPN pay scale for the district. So I am not even in a similar range as the other RNs, which is the cause of the large gap.

That doesn't seem right, as you are an RN with that degree. School districts are weird, for sure! It blows my mind that no less than a bachelors is required for ANY grade level teacher, yet they will try and minimize the school nurse role without a blink of an eye. Sad.

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Are you in a position that is typically filled by an LPN? In our district, if you work as an on site clinic nurse (even as an RN) you are paid LPN scale. If you're a district nurse you receive RN scale. I feel like its a strange policy.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Telemetry, Skilled, School Nursing.
Are you in a position that is typically filled by an LPN? In our district, if you work as an on site clinic nurse (even as an RN) you are paid LPN scale. If you're a district nurse you receive RN scale. I feel like its a strange policy.

We don't have that sort of organization in this district. They actually phased out LPNs prior to me being hired.

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Same where I am. Most of the school "nurses" are unlicensed ancillary staff like cna's, medical assistants, and basic emt's. So when they actually hire a nurse the pay is beyond disappointing. I just posted about this before reading yours. When I just got my job offer, they initially offered 15/hr. I was making 28 at my last job. I expected a definite pay decrease, but not barely above minimum wage. Schools pay notoriously bad. Especially when we're replaceable in this atmosphere by unlicensed staff; my guess is hoping for a pay increase is wasted energy.

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And also if you're talking about pay across different districts, some just pay more than others based on the area they're on, their rating , and how much funding they get.

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