School Nursing

[MatthewKeating]

I am an EEN (cert IV) registered in Victoria. I have 3 years experience in Aged Care, low care aging in place (night shift incharge, medication quality manager, assistant care co-ordinator).

I would really like to get in to school nursing but am finding it difficult to find any reliable information about it. I have a sneaking suspition that you need to be an RN due to the pediatric component. I do have a previous (most likely irrelevant) qualification in child care though.

If anyone has any information about my eligibility to work in school nursing as an EEN, how I can get into it or any other useful information, I'd be extremely grateful if you could help me out.

:) thanks

[Bringonthenight]

Hey,

I think you do need to be an RN unless you can find a school that has an RN "on call" available for you to contact at anytime. Or an RN onsite to supervise you. Though i think most schools only have one nurse on duty at once. Otherwise you would be technically operating outside of your scope without having supervision (direct or indirect) from an RN. Also schools generally require paediatric experience for obvious reasons. Plus there might be other scope of practice issues eg: looking after an unstable patient and initiating medications or giving the first dose of a medication etc etc (I am unfamiliar with Victorian scope for ENs I'm just going off of the national scope).

That's how I see it anyway I could be completely wrong.

All the best :)

[MatthewKeating]

I have had those exact thoughts myself. But then I thought, as an EEN I never entertained the idea of being THE school nurse but rather a suport staff for the RN on duty. I mean if you think about it a school with 1000 students... one nurse... thats a ratio to put all others to shame and they do more than specifically provide nursing care. When I was in High School our nurse had office hours where people could book appointments, and ran the sexual health classes and stuff like that... so I'm sure it would be well within an EENs SOP to deal with the scrapped knees, pre math test "headaches" lol and other common school ailments while the RN is otherwise occupied. Besides I can nurse initiate medications if there is a RN onsite or oncall :) (but I am fairly certain that medication administration in a school environment is pretty strict because our nurse wouldnt even give us a panadol without calling our parents and asking permission lol... but either way Im pretty sure there would be something an EEN could do as a school nurse... wether or not the government would see it as a viable use of money is a different story haha

[Bringonthenight]

I have had those exact thoughts myself. But then I thought, as an EEN I never entertained the idea of being THE school nurse but rather a suport staff for the RN on duty. I mean if you think about it a school with 1000 students... one nurse... thats a ratio to put all others to shame and they do more than specifically provide nursing care. When I was in High School our nurse had office hours where people could book appointments, and ran the sexual health classes and stuff like that... so I'm sure it would be well within an EENs SOP to deal with the scrapped knees, pre math test "headaches" lol and other common school ailments while the RN is otherwise occupied. Besides I can nurse initiate medications if there is a RN onsite or oncall :) (but I am fairly certain that medication administration in a school environment is pretty strict because our nurse wouldnt even give us a panadol without calling our parents and asking permission lol... but either way Im pretty sure there would be something an EEN could do as a school nurse... wether or not the government would see it as a viable use of money is a different story haha

Good points.

I know there's so many useless restrictions put on EENs I don't get it.

[MatthewKeating]

Good points.

I know there's so many useless restrictions put on EENs I don't get it.

They aren't useless restrictions.... EENs cert IV and diploma have less knowledge base, in that they dont study as broadly and they dont study as in depth. With my knowledge and experience there are maybe a few restrictions that are useless... but most of them are there because although I can understand what has to be done, I may not understand why or when it needs to be done... or of there is something that has to be done before I start. And that is simply because I dont have that extra year or so of indepth study.

EENs and RNs have fairly similar SOP but RNs have more freedom because they have more knowledge and can make more appropriate decosions...

[canned_bread]

Just rang a family member who is an RN who has worked at an independent all-girls school for years now, and the school has 1500 students, including a boarding facility or about 120-odd girls.

She said the advertisement was for an RN, due to the high scope required, and it is the doctor that is on-call. She is also under the impression that there is no way that a school would hire 2 nurses to be on duty at one time.