1st School Nurse Interview

It depends on who interviews you. If it's administration at the school, they will want to hear how you follow policy and procedure, how you would resolve conflict with co-workers, paperwork, etc. If a medical person interviews you, they will focus on triaging, ABCs, asthma management, diabetic care, etc. School nursing is its own specialty, just take the training you have and apply it to the scenario they present to you. GOOD LUCK!

Brush up on type 1 diabetes, asthma, allergies. Be ready to explain ways you've worked independently and used your nursing assessment skills independently. As always with nursing interviews be ready with a "strengths" and "weaknesses" examples of a time you dealt with a difficult patient or family, examples of challenges you've overcome or ways you've had to adapt quickly. Milk any experience you have with kids.

40 minutes ago, BiscuitRN said:

examples of a time you dealt with a difficult patient or family, examples of challenges you've overcome or ways you've had to adapt quickly.

THIS! I had several "Tell me about a time where you had to ..." type questions. Also a lot of "what would you do if" type questions. Have a good answer for why you are getting into school nursing that doesn't make it sound like you just want Summer's off, LOL.

Funny.... when I went to my interview they didn’t ask me any real questions. They just wanted to know when I could start... that should have been a red flag to me .

Found out very quickly school nursing not for me. Counting the days until I can leave next month

Understand difference between 504/IHP/IEP in your state.

33 minutes ago, LikeTheDeadSea said:

Understand difference between 504/IHP/IEP in your state.

And HIPAA and FERPA

1 hour ago, StressedRN76 said:

Funny.... when I went to my interview they didn’t ask me any real questions. They just wanted to know when I could start... that should have been a red flag to me .

Found out very quickly school nursing not for me. Counting the days until I can leave next month

What did you find to cause you to want to leave so quickly and what city are you in?

My interview is with the Director of Nursing tomorrow so I'm anticipating some real "on the job" type questions. The school is pre-k through 12th grade. Should I also commit developmental stages to memory? I want to be ready for any clinical type questions but don't want to stress and over do it just to remember nothing ?

23 hours ago, NutmeggeRN said:

And HIPAA and FERPA

Wait, don't you mean "HIPPA"...??

On 10/4/2019 at 1:43 PM, Jedrnurse said:

Wait, don't you mean "HIPPA"...??

Bwahahha!

Update: Interview went well! Thank you for all the advice on what to brush up on clinically! I have a final interview this week with the rest of the school board. The Director of Nursing gave me some more insight into what the student body looks like:

Private school of 1500 students

200-300 faculty

1 Nursing director + potentially me (currently 2 per diems)

2 seizure kiddos, 1 diabetic, several on epi allergy plans, several regular meds

The director said that it's a mad house there and she's always running around and there's a lot of work to do. I am all about the hustle and bustle and actually like a face-paced environment. However, these kiddos don't sound too "clinically sick" compared to what I've been hearing. Wondering what else could be so taxing there? I'm actually thankful I will have a less sick population since my clinical skills need to be ramped back up after so long without hands on experience and that I have another nurse to hopefully mentor me a bit.

What else other than lots of sick kiddos creates a lot of difficulty for you as school nurses?

Nose bleeds, paper work, Screenings, immunization compliance, and daily medications. 750 Students pre k-12 plus staff, there is always something to do or that needs to be done.