School nursing in Australia

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Specializes in OR.

No one has posted in the Aus/NZ forum in two years, so I'm going to try my luck here, too.

Anyone familiar with school nursing in Australia?

I'm from the US and looking to immigrate to Australia.

I can't make heads nor tails of school nursing in Aus. It doesn't seem to really be a thing. It looks like students can see a nurse in the school setting for primary care ("School based youth health nurses?"), and there are nurses that train school staff on how to handle students health needs, but that school nursing as we know it in the US does not really exist in Australia. It appears that nurses do go around to do immunizations at schools in Aus, but otherwise the day-to-day health needs are met by regular school staff. Which is crazy to me? How do teachers teach while also having to manage health issues? And not having a medical background?

It also seems to be different at private schools? I see lots of job postings for school nurses for private schools and none for public schools. But the private schools tend to be boarding schools and it looks like you're expected to live there and be on call 24/7.

I know this is a long shot as this seems to be a primarily US based forum, but if anyone can demystify school nursing in Australia that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance for any info!

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Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.

I can't really speak to school nursing specifically, but I think nurses in British Commonwealth Countries (Canada aside, maybe), are allowed to do a lot more assessment and treatment than US nurses, especially in the community. I would suggest you try Reddit to ask your questions - I am sure there is a sub-reddit for schools in Australia and maybe even a specific nursing forum for Australia-based nurses... The general nursing forum on Reddit is fascinating to read, but trends more towards hospital nurses in the US. 

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Specializes in OR.

Yes, I did take this to the AskAnAustralian subreddit and got a ton of responses. Thank you!

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Specializes in Periop.

Long story short:

Great hours, great work/kids balance, crappy pay, ED experience preferred, hard to get in

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