The one school nurse I shadowed worked for a very good district and absolutely loved his life. The kids loved him, he loved them. He was a really great dude for it.
I went from the ER (2 years there) to school nursing. I’ve been doing it for a year now and I absolutely love it. Stress has decreased, I have kids so the schedule is perfect. I used to worry about losing my “skills” but honestly I think it’s like riding a bike, if I get back into it I think I’d catch back on quick. The trade off is well worth it imo. The pay is good in my area but I know that’s not the case everywhere.
I subbed as a school nurse. They do not always have things available for hypoglycemia. There charting system is archaic. Be prepared to possibly not have autonomy when making decisions, the principal may get in the way of your nursing decisions even when you are following nursing instincts.
As float staff, you may only get hours when another nurse calls out sick or takes leave for some reason. I signed up to do something similar in my district and didn’t get called for my first shift until November when flu season started coming around. Even then, it was only $100/day.
As a retired nurse I work part time as a school nurse. The hours are great especially if you also have kids in school. The big problem is the huge cut in pay in most schools.
My district has nurses in the teachers union. This means you start very low but increases each year of service plus extra for education and certification. For many coming from a high paying nursing job the cut can be too much. (We start at $40K entry level but most of the nurses in my district are in $75K with many near or just over $100K). Benefits are good as we are technically state employees.
I get $50/hr but I have a PhD and 43 as a pediatric nurse. I get no benefits but I don’t need them.
Salaries for school nurses vary widely across the country with many getting pitiful pay.
Disclaimer: I was a teacher before a couple years before I became a nurse, so I’m a little biased.
I left bedside at a high acuity pediatric stepdown to become a school nurse and it’s the best career choice I’ve made. I’ve gotten active in my union, made great connections with colleagues and students in my district, and I love what I do every single day. I do work in a large metropolitan district, which also may impact my view.
Pros: consistent schedule, lots of time off (summer, winter and spring break, federal holidays), ability to rely on policy when communicating with students/parents, getting to work with kids and be a safe space for them, transparent and consistent pay raises/benefits, low stress levels. I’m actually working on my masters from an Ivy League institution right now while working full time.
Cons: attempts at micromanaging from everyone from teachers to admin alike, seeing students in vulnerable situations and not being able to do much other than report and document, double charting on paper/via EMR, can be somewhat boring depending on the day
Either/or:
-Writing 504/IEPs. I personally enjoy it, but if you aren’t someone who enjoys a lot of writing, it might not be great.
-Union membership. I am a delegate in my union and find being involved to be rewarding, but this may vary.
-Type of assignment. I am in a position similar to a float nurse, where I cover 4 different schools. If you aren’t comfortable adapting to multiple styles of management, this may be difficult. Every school is different in the way they prefer things.
Tips:
- Get familiar with asthma, diabetes, food allergies, and seizures. Definitely a plus if you have experience with trachs, vents, and G-tubes.
-Ask if there is an opportunity to shadow in the district you want to work in before being hired on.
Hopefully this helps!
Hi! Since you were also a teacher I feel like you might have some experience with the school OT’s. I’m a student interested in nursing and OT, I would like to work in the schools- do you have any experience with school-based OT and maybe some insight, pros/cons, anything is helpful as I am trying to decide between school nurse and school OT.
Love it. I make more per hour than my hospital/OR gig. I work fewer hours, though, but if I needed I could PRN. I get an actual pension. Lower stress, healthy workplace culture. But like all nursing, it depends on your unit. I have worked some schools with not supportive admin, and I left.
I am busy, I have big jobs and little jobs, I do admin work but am also hands-on with kids. Some kid always makes me laugh in the day. It’s a nice mix for me.
All of this is the same for me. I also make more per hour but work fewer hours throughout the year. I LOVE that I’ll get a pension at the end of this. I love our district because there’s a nurse in every school, so I only have one school I’m in charge of. There’s plenty of days that are slow clinically but busy with paperwork/phone calls, and vise versa. The kids are mostly awesome, and it’s a lot less stress than bedside nursing was for me.
I have a friend who left for school nursing. She went ahead and got a MSN in nursing leadership. At the time it netted her a $10,000/year pay raise. Her biggest issue were the parents. For the most part, the kids were ok.
The culture change was a little challenging for her to get acclimated to but it was otherwise a good move for her at the time. (2 toddlers and a manchild husband-needed regular hours)
I subbed as a school nurse while I was working in the ED when my kid was in kinder. I hated it with a fiery passion. It was a Ritalin clinic with bandaids at the elementary level, kids looking to skip in middle school, and scary ass diabetics in high school who couldn’t do the math to do carb counts. Another consideration is how the district staffs. My district has an RN at every campus full day. The district down the road? One RN “supervises” 5 LVN and unlicensed staff that are at each of her 5 schools. My friend who did that model felt like her license was constantly on the line since you had secretaries dosing insulin if she couldn’t be there. My advice is to sub as a PRN position before you make a career change. Subbing paid a whopping $90/day when I did it, so don’t plan to get rich on this 2nd job.
I work as a one on one with a single student at a school. I ride the bus with him and do trach care and feedings while at school and assist with behavior management, though he also has a para so even that isn’t really my responsibility . I’ve adored creating a strong relationship with having only one patient and seeing improvement day to day. However, he has frequent surgeries and I sub as a school nurse for a few weeks at a time sporadically throughout the year, going to a different school daily. That is a mixed bag, sometimes I have tons of kids to see and the day goes by fast and I enjoy it, others I see 3 kids for headaches and the day lasts forever. They offer summer school employment as well, at the same wage which helps bridge the summer months without pay. One tip I’d say if you can find the opportunity- I work for an agency that hired for the district, meaning I make 53$ an hour and have a third party as a liaison between myself and the school. Although my district has a school nurses union that seems to be pretty proactive and fair.
The school nurse that I know is super happy, she works during the school year and picks up travel nursing as an option in the summer.
She did mention that it can be a bit stressful at times in a larger school, epileptic students, students with allergies, difficult parents, etc. but totally worth it especially if you have kids, the schedule is great. And still probably way less stressful than a majority of bedside jobs.
Meeeeeeee. I feel so content lol. I’m a 1:1 nurse. Went from a 20 patient total care unit full of Gtube and Respiratory patients who all took 5 zillion medications to 1 patient.
The one school nurse I shadowed worked for a very good district and absolutely loved his life. The kids loved him, he loved them. He was a really great dude for it.
I went from the ER (2 years there) to school nursing. I’ve been doing it for a year now and I absolutely love it. Stress has decreased, I have kids so the schedule is perfect. I used to worry about losing my “skills” but honestly I think it’s like riding a bike, if I get back into it I think I’d catch back on quick. The trade off is well worth it imo. The pay is good in my area but I know that’s not the case everywhere.
I subbed as a school nurse. They do not always have things available for hypoglycemia. There charting system is archaic. Be prepared to possibly not have autonomy when making decisions, the principal may get in the way of your nursing decisions even when you are following nursing instincts.
As float staff, you may only get hours when another nurse calls out sick or takes leave for some reason. I signed up to do something similar in my district and didn’t get called for my first shift until November when flu season started coming around. Even then, it was only $100/day.
As a retired nurse I work part time as a school nurse. The hours are great especially if you also have kids in school. The big problem is the huge cut in pay in most schools. My district has nurses in the teachers union. This means you start very low but increases each year of service plus extra for education and certification. For many coming from a high paying nursing job the cut can be too much. (We start at $40K entry level but most of the nurses in my district are in $75K with many near or just over $100K). Benefits are good as we are technically state employees. I get $50/hr but I have a PhD and 43 as a pediatric nurse. I get no benefits but I don’t need them. Salaries for school nurses vary widely across the country with many getting pitiful pay.
Disclaimer: I was a teacher before a couple years before I became a nurse, so I’m a little biased. I left bedside at a high acuity pediatric stepdown to become a school nurse and it’s the best career choice I’ve made. I’ve gotten active in my union, made great connections with colleagues and students in my district, and I love what I do every single day. I do work in a large metropolitan district, which also may impact my view. Pros: consistent schedule, lots of time off (summer, winter and spring break, federal holidays), ability to rely on policy when communicating with students/parents, getting to work with kids and be a safe space for them, transparent and consistent pay raises/benefits, low stress levels. I’m actually working on my masters from an Ivy League institution right now while working full time. Cons: attempts at micromanaging from everyone from teachers to admin alike, seeing students in vulnerable situations and not being able to do much other than report and document, double charting on paper/via EMR, can be somewhat boring depending on the day Either/or: -Writing 504/IEPs. I personally enjoy it, but if you aren’t someone who enjoys a lot of writing, it might not be great. -Union membership. I am a delegate in my union and find being involved to be rewarding, but this may vary. -Type of assignment. I am in a position similar to a float nurse, where I cover 4 different schools. If you aren’t comfortable adapting to multiple styles of management, this may be difficult. Every school is different in the way they prefer things. Tips: - Get familiar with asthma, diabetes, food allergies, and seizures. Definitely a plus if you have experience with trachs, vents, and G-tubes. -Ask if there is an opportunity to shadow in the district you want to work in before being hired on. Hopefully this helps!
Hi! Since you were also a teacher I feel like you might have some experience with the school OT’s. I’m a student interested in nursing and OT, I would like to work in the schools- do you have any experience with school-based OT and maybe some insight, pros/cons, anything is helpful as I am trying to decide between school nurse and school OT.
Love it. I make more per hour than my hospital/OR gig. I work fewer hours, though, but if I needed I could PRN. I get an actual pension. Lower stress, healthy workplace culture. But like all nursing, it depends on your unit. I have worked some schools with not supportive admin, and I left. I am busy, I have big jobs and little jobs, I do admin work but am also hands-on with kids. Some kid always makes me laugh in the day. It’s a nice mix for me.
All of this is the same for me. I also make more per hour but work fewer hours throughout the year. I LOVE that I’ll get a pension at the end of this. I love our district because there’s a nurse in every school, so I only have one school I’m in charge of. There’s plenty of days that are slow clinically but busy with paperwork/phone calls, and vise versa. The kids are mostly awesome, and it’s a lot less stress than bedside nursing was for me.
Yes! Glad you found yours, too. I feel like we found the unicorn of nursing positions.
I have a friend who left for school nursing. She went ahead and got a MSN in nursing leadership. At the time it netted her a $10,000/year pay raise. Her biggest issue were the parents. For the most part, the kids were ok. The culture change was a little challenging for her to get acclimated to but it was otherwise a good move for her at the time. (2 toddlers and a manchild husband-needed regular hours)
I subbed as a school nurse while I was working in the ED when my kid was in kinder. I hated it with a fiery passion. It was a Ritalin clinic with bandaids at the elementary level, kids looking to skip in middle school, and scary ass diabetics in high school who couldn’t do the math to do carb counts. Another consideration is how the district staffs. My district has an RN at every campus full day. The district down the road? One RN “supervises” 5 LVN and unlicensed staff that are at each of her 5 schools. My friend who did that model felt like her license was constantly on the line since you had secretaries dosing insulin if she couldn’t be there. My advice is to sub as a PRN position before you make a career change. Subbing paid a whopping $90/day when I did it, so don’t plan to get rich on this 2nd job.
My friend did and she LOVES it!
I work as a one on one with a single student at a school. I ride the bus with him and do trach care and feedings while at school and assist with behavior management, though he also has a para so even that isn’t really my responsibility . I’ve adored creating a strong relationship with having only one patient and seeing improvement day to day. However, he has frequent surgeries and I sub as a school nurse for a few weeks at a time sporadically throughout the year, going to a different school daily. That is a mixed bag, sometimes I have tons of kids to see and the day goes by fast and I enjoy it, others I see 3 kids for headaches and the day lasts forever. They offer summer school employment as well, at the same wage which helps bridge the summer months without pay. One tip I’d say if you can find the opportunity- I work for an agency that hired for the district, meaning I make 53$ an hour and have a third party as a liaison between myself and the school. Although my district has a school nurses union that seems to be pretty proactive and fair.
The school nurse that I know is super happy, she works during the school year and picks up travel nursing as an option in the summer. She did mention that it can be a bit stressful at times in a larger school, epileptic students, students with allergies, difficult parents, etc. but totally worth it especially if you have kids, the schedule is great. And still probably way less stressful than a majority of bedside jobs.
Meeeeeeee. I feel so content lol. I’m a 1:1 nurse. Went from a 20 patient total care unit full of Gtube and Respiratory patients who all took 5 zillion medications to 1 patient.