Spending my first year as a school nurse...I want to go to the hospital

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jan 12, 2009

I landed a job as the district nurse at a small school district where I live...thought it was perfect at the time, great hours, home with my kids (especially since my husband has been in Iraq), and I'm the boss. Pefect! Well, I'm loney, bored, scared of crazy parents who think that their kid's jammed finger is an emergency, the laisse faire attitude from the district about covering our a$$ with special needs kids, and the multitude of "special health aides" who are taking care of kids with g tubes and other special needs. ERRRRRRR!!! On top of that, I make half of what I'd make in the hospital.
So now I want to go to the hospital, but I need some advice on getting back on track since I've been "out" of the swing of things for almost a year. How do I convince them that I haven't lost all of my skills??

I wouldn't try to convince them you haven't lost all your skills; it's already accepted that you are rusty in what you learned in hospital clinicals and haven't learned other stuff. It would be shooting yourself in the foot to try to impress them with what you learned as a school nurse; acute care hospitals are WAAAAYYY different. However, that doesn't mean that you aren't ripe and ready for an orientation program!

My facility (I work in acute care med-surg, and get paid reasonably well, I think, for it) hires new grads straight out of school, as well as newly licensed nurses who haven't had any/much experience on the floor. Both are given preceptors and start out small, with one or two patients, and learn to manage meds, dressings, time, etc etc. They move up to more patients as they increase their ability to juggle more of a workload, and as they learn new skills (and improve already-learned ones by increasing speed, efficiency and such).

Apply to a variety of hospitals, and ask about recent grad programs. Good luck to you!