I am a school nurse in Texas and I work at a large urban school district.
Nursing is a noble profession and nurses, in general, are widely respected. Except for school nurses. Many people have asked me, "So, you're an RN? That's great! What field do you work in?" When I tell them I am a school nurse they reply, "Oh," and look at me as though I've just run over their dog. A woman I knew once said to me, "School nurses are just "washed up" nurses who can't make it anywhere else." My own husband and children believe that all I do in the course of a school day is dispense band aids and ice packs, which couldn't be further from the truth!
I dispense caring and compassion as I care for a sick child whose parents can't (or don't want to) be reached to pick their child up. I dispense competence and confidence when I rely solely on my nursing judgment and critical thinking skills in an emergent situation - because there is no physician there to give me orders. I dispense conscience and comportment as I hold my tongue while I am being cursed at and threatened by an angry parent (which, by the way, happens frequently). Sister Roach's "Six C's of Nursing" were drilled into me in nursing school, and I have come to embrace them. Each morning on my way to work I ask God to help me embody the Six C's of Nursing.
I didn't become a school nurse for money or glory. I became a school nurse knowing I would gain neither. I simply answered a calling.
It would be wonderful if we were recognized and respected for everything we do - the special procedures that enable medically fragile and chronically ill children to attend school, acting as each child's health advocate, maintaining complicated health records, and that's just the tip of the iceberg! In reality, though, we are loved and respected by the only people who really matter; the children we take care of.
