School Nursing in Houston? Help!

[rollydrooly208]

Hey everyone! Here's the long story short, I am a new graduate (May 2010) Started work as an RN in the beginning of July. I work in the med center in Houston as a clinical nurse. I absolutely hate working weekends and holidays. I know I signed up for that but it really gets me down for the whole week leading up to it that I can't pep myself up or get out of the rut.

Anyways I applied for some school nursing jobs, because I have always been interested ( i used to want to be a teacher). A school that's 15 minutes away (and where I don't have to pay 65 dollars per month to park!) called and I have an interview with the principal and the head of the school health dept on the same day. It's 32 hours a week, no weekends or holidays and I think the summer off as well. These are all great perks, I'm just curious about what exactly a school nurse does and how the pay is in Houston. On the post it said like 44,500-70,000 so that seems fine but i'm sure I'll find out when I go to interview.

Also I talked to some girls a work and they really think I should stay and get more clinical experience which I know is good, but I know I don't want to stay there forever so why not take a good opportunity if it falls in my lap? Any advice out there? Thank you! :redbeathe

[lifelearningrn, BSN, RN]

Since you're so new you'll probably be right at the bottom end of the pay scale. Good luck!! (I hear CCISD pays their nurses pretty well)

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

School nursing is great but it's imperative that you have a really strong background. By and large you are in the clinic alone and are responsible for all your students (and staff too, for that matter) every minute of the school day. If an emergency comes about it's your call as to alert EMS or intervene on your own. Some are easy calls and some are not so clear cut. Not to say that there haven't been school nurses straight out of sursing school- it's just not an ideal situation.

I'd say to go to your interview and see what they say, but be clear with them that you are still relatively new. Perhaps at the bare minimum you can get in as a sub nurse.