As a school nurse with several years of secondary experience, I want to help other nurses decide if school nursing is right for them. I have been through the pros and cons and will help shed light on the solo career of the school nurse.
A school nurse is a licensed LPN, LVN, or RN who works in the K-12 school setting, although regulations vary from state to state. A school nurse usually works a regular school day schedule, which correlates with a teacher's daily schedule. School nurses work with students and staff and must understand triage basics. The school nurse is usually the only medical person in the school building and is the person who is responsible for making medical decisions.
What Does the School Nurse Do All Day Long?
I have worked in a secondary school, which is grades 8th through 12th, for a combination of nine years. From my experience as a school registered nurse with a BSN, my job was a mystery to almost everyone. Even my school principal was in the dark regarding my medical duties.
My initial internship, we'll call it, left me with more questions than answers. The start of the school year was hectic because there were a lot of new enrollees, and I had to make a chart for each new student. The perk was the schedule was the hours. I worked from 7:15 am until 2:45 pm. My job was to ensure that all students either had documentation that they had received all of their state-required immunizations or exemption documentation. If a student had missed an immunization and still managed to attend, we could lose state funding.
The day-to-day flow varied. Usually, there would be the same frequent fliers that would grace my door. I would distribute medication, bandages and check temperatures. Contacting parents was a daily activity when students became sick during the school day, or if they came to school sick, they would still have to go home to keep illness away from the student population. Parent calls were tough sometimes. Not all parents were concerned for their children. Some were unwilling to pick up their sick kids. Thankfully, most parents were good and grateful to have someone take care of their kids, but it's essential to know that working in a school is not all positive.
Covid-19 challenged nurses regardless of the work environment. I often had to contact parents when there was an exposure, and that phone call was never well received. Happily, those rules and regulations for Covid-19 are in the past. Hopefully, they will remain there too.
I did very well on my required observations because my school administrators didn't know what I did all day. A school nurse has a misunderstood job. No one else in the school understands what you do because it is not a traditional educational career. School nursing can be lonely, but that appealed to my introverted nature.
What About the Salary?
School nursing is not on the higher end of the nursing salary spectrum. According to Salary.com, the current median school nurse salary is $54,264. I did not make anywhere near that range as a school nurse. In contrast, a staff nurse's median salary is $88,815, also found at Salary.com. Working as a school nurse was a good fit for my family and me for years, but it was not without sacrifices. There are conveniences in exchange for a lesser wage, such as a better schedule without required nights or weekends and lengthy breaks. These are individual choices that will have to be weighed by each nurse.
Final Thoughts
School nursing is something I do not regret because it gave me a family-friendly job. I learned how to work with children and administration, a skill I'm glad to have in my pocket. I'm not too fond of adrenaline-filled days, which was a reprieve from more traditional nursing roles.
I encourage other nurses to go into the field because it is rewarding. School nurses should demand wages more in line with that of school teachers. Fair pay is significant, and so is job satisfaction. Of course, all jobs have their sticking points; that was mine. The biggest problem was feeling like an outsider while being a school staff member and being paid on a scale lower than a licensed individual would typically earn. In the county I worked for, nurses were in the same category as staff without specialized licensing, which was discouraging.
Dear future school nurses, you are an essential member of the school staff, beloved by many. You matter and make school possible for many of the students you serve. It is your job if you take the assignment to be the best school nurse you can be, and hopefully, you will gain more traction regarding wages and your visibility in the school itself.
Specializes in Tele/surgical step down/ infection control.
I noticed my district has "certified nurses" and "staff nurses". There is a job posting for "staff nurses" and it looks like they report to the certified nurse. Looks like a potential opportunity to have someone more knowledgeable to work/learn from with until I get certified?
Specializes in Freelance Writer, RN, Health Content.
I agree with the idea of working either as per-diem or in my county it would be as a substitute nurse, which we never have enough of. This would be helpful for a few different reasons, one of them being that you may be required to get your finger prints completed to work with school aged children, I had to do that when I substituted even after only being away for a short time. Another good thing about substituting is that you could see what age group you liked working with. Elementary and Secondary are vastly different, and I personally prefer the older student because they can tell me what's wrong and usually do not vomit on the floor but there is always an exception to that rule as well! Once you are on the substitute list, you can then easily correspond with your nurse manager and go from there to find more out about certification. I wonder if they are referring to the school nurse certification? I thought about getting certified myself. None of the school nurses in my county have it, but there are talks about it so perhaps that's what the certification is in your county as well. Best of luck to you :)
Lavachicken
8 Posts
I noticed my district has "certified nurses" and "staff nurses". There is a job posting for "staff nurses" and it looks like they report to the certified nurse. Looks like a potential opportunity to have someone more knowledgeable to work/learn from with until I get certified?