school psych nurse?

Farawyn · Jan 24, 2017

I don't think a school setting would pay a practitioner like that. They usually go with PsyD, CSW, MSW with a certification in school psych or Child/Adolescent.

What, you don't get enough psych as a School Nurse? It's easily 40% of my visits. Anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, Special Ed., eating disorders, abuse, pregnancy, suicidal ideation...the list goes on and on.

I have a BA in psych and my boxes are being ticked with this job more than any other RN position I've worked.

We have a School Nurse forum as well. You may want to pop your head in. Welcome to AN.

basketball13 · Jan 24, 2017

Thanks,

I absolutely do get plenty of psych related issues. This is a high poverty, drug abused area resulting in tons of mental health issues. BUT, I'm technically not qualified to provide help in the form of counseling and such. I am a registered nurse who worked on a pysch floor. I don't have a special psych certification. I'm more or less supposed to refer them to the school counselor. I wouldn't even care if I didn't get paid like a psych NP would in a different setting. I guess I just enjoyed being a psych nurse in the hospital a lot and wish to use my knowledge and skill in this area to help these kids out more if that makes sense.

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Jan 25, 2017

Thanks,
I absolutely do get plenty of psych related issues. This is a high poverty, drug abused area resulting in tons of mental health issues. BUT, I'm technically not qualified to provide help in the form of counseling and such. I am a registered nurse who worked on a pysch floor. I don't have a special psych certification. I'm more or less supposed to refer them to the school counselor. I wouldn't even care if I didn't get paid like a psych NP would in a different setting. I guess I just enjoyed being a psych nurse in the hospital a lot and wish to use my knowledge and skill in this area to help these kids out more if that makes sense.

Do you have a PRN job? If not, why don't you go work as a psych nurse PRN so that way you can do both.

basketball13 · Jan 25, 2017

Do you have a PRN job? If not, why don't you go work as a psych nurse PRN so that way you can do both.

I've been looking for a PRN or casual psych nurse job. Especially so that I could work some in the summer. I actually tried to stayed on at my previous hospital PRN or casual (I not only enjoyed working psych, but I also had a very good working relationship with my manager and had wonderful co workers who became like family to me... which is surprising if you know me because I'm more of a closed off person, very shy at first), but at that hospital there is a nurses' union and EVERYTHING is by seniority. Therefore, they couldn't just let me drop from full time to PRN or casual because they had to post the job first, and then someone more senior than me applied. It's frustrating. Plus upper management there tends to hold a grudge when someone leaves for another job... even when you are a really good employee and upper management above my manager controls how many casual and prn jobs a unit can have. For some reason when the new upper management came in they decided they didn't really like PRN and Casual jobs (I have no idea why, they have NO BENEFITS like healthcare, vacation, etc.) There is only one other psych facility somewhat close by (both are over an hour away), and I've been checking their job postings a lot too, but they have not been hiring any RNs since I started my school nurse job in October.

Please understand I do like my new job and if I had to do it over, I would still take this job (though I would have taken a casual spot that came open last May, long before I knew I would end up leaving lol)... Mental Health is just something I care deeply about. I was just wondering if I had any options, if that makes sense.