school nursing

Zippedodah · Dec 8, 2006

Most school nurses in Ohio are MSN prepared. It is hard to get a job because most districts only have one nurse for the whole school system. Ours spends most of her days at the two schools that house our handicapped kids. She also gives the talk to the 4th and 5th graders about puberty etc.

amoe1219 · Dec 8, 2006

Forgive me, but what is MSN prepared?

Christie RN2006 · Dec 9, 2006

MSN=Master of Science in Nursing (they have an actual track now for school nurses)

I have my BSN and I was a school nurse for about 3 months at a school with about 700 kids. I was just doing it as a favor for the principal because the previous nurse quit. I absolutely loved it and was offered the full time position, but there is no way I could have afforded the cut in pay. As a school nurse I would have only made about 20k per year.

As a school nurse you have to deal with all the sick kids and all the kids that are pretending to be sick so they can get out of class. You have to be a quick thinker because you are totally on your own, and the kids can sure get themselves into interesting situations... In my 3 months I had to deal with broken arms, diabetic emergencies, severe cuts, concussions, and I even had to call poison control. You have to do all the paperwork for the state dealing with vaccinations, physicals, eye and hearing tests, etc. You also have to do all the eye and hearing tests. You also do various teaching projects with the kids, like we did handwashing.

It is an absolute blast getting to know and work with the kids. If you love kids, can afford a cut in pay, like things a bit more slower paced, but are able to critically think, you might like being a school nurse.