Be a School Nurse
By Eric Hammer
If you love children and want a steady job which is in demand,
you may well want to consider a career as a school nurse. As
a school nurse, your job will involve working in schools and
taking care of the basic scrapes and bruises that come along
during the course of a school day. You'll also need to deal with
kids who happen to get sick during the school day and know when
to call for the paramedics.
In essence, you are the first responder in the school for
the kids and the gatekeeper toward getting sent home early because
the child happens to be sick. You may also find that as a school
nurse, you are called upon to deal with children who are experiencing
drug problems and or who are trying to get out of gym class.
In short, no two days will be exactly alike, but you will have
plenty of down time between seeing children during which time
you can relax.
The other nice thing about being a school nurse is that the
job is fairly secure, given that there will always be school
children and there will always be a need for an official school
nurse since it is often mandated by law.
How Much Can You Make?
The average salary for a school nurse is typically in the
range of around $45,000 per year, putting it squarely in the
middle class. It's important to keep in mind though that school
nurses often get to keep teacher's hours, meaning that you get
a significant amount of vacation time, however unlike teachers,
you won't need to haul piles of school papers home with you to
grade.
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Many school nurses also work during the summer in summer camps
in order to earn extra money. In some cases, the school nurse
is not a full time position but a rotating position where you
work only a few days each week at a school. This will depend
largely on budget concerns as well as local laws which dictate
whether or not a school nurse must be present and for how many
students a nurse is needed.
In some cases, you may start work as an assistant school nurse
if it happens that you are working in a particularly large school.
This is especially possible in some high schools, where the student
population can reach into the thousands.
In all cases, a school nurse does need to be able to keep
his or her cool under difficult circumstances as you never know
what may happen next. While rare, it is possible you may deal
with stab wounds and or gunshot wounds if a student brings a
weapon to school. This means that you need to be able to deal
with a hysterical child and calm them down quickly, while also
administering first aid until such time as the paramedics are
able to arrive.
Qualifications / Requirements
Generally, in order to become a school nurse, you merely need
to take the same kind of schooling as a standard nurse. This
is typically a two year course of study which will allow you
to work in any kind of nursing profession. In some cases, states
may have specific licensing requirements for a school nurse which
differ from the standard nursing requirements.
First Steps
Start by checking with your state licensing board to find
out if there are specific requirements to become a school nurse
or if you merely need to take a standard nursing course of study.
Then, attend a school where you can earn your degree.
Resources
Check out these helpful resources to learn more about becoming
a school nurse:
Innerbody: How to Become a School Nurse - This
is an excellent guide to becoming a school nurse from an organization
dedicated to health topics in general.
National Association
of School Nurses - A professional organization dedicated
to those who choose to become a school nurse.
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