Tuesday, February 26, 2013

No Nurse to School Nurse

Hi everyone!

Sorry if you think I abandoned you, but I didn't! I'm still here, just more on my plate. I finally settled in to everything but it doesn't look like my life is going to slow down anything soon. Since I just got my millionth question on how to be a school nurse I thought I'd break it down for everyone. It's a little complicated and there's more to it than what you think so make sure it's the right choice for you before you pursue it. As a note, these rules only apply to California. School nurse laws vary by state. For example, in California only BSN's can become a school nurse while in other states you can have your ADN.


  1. Graduate nursing school with your BSN. Pass NCLEX. Find a school nurse job. Interview. Get the job. 
  2. Since you are a new school nurse once you have the position, the school or school district will have you fingerprinted and obtain a $70 money order or check. This will go toward your school nurse credential. When your prints clear you will get a temporary preliminary credential from the school which allows you to work and expires in one year.
  3. The state will send you your actual preliminary school nursing credential in the mail which expires in 5 years. It is NOT RENEWABLE. 
  4. During those five years you must unfortunately go back to school. You have to obtain your clear credential in order to continue working. To do that you have to have worked as a school nurse for 2 years and completed a school nurse program. 
I have my temporary license from the district and I'm waiting on my official one from the state. Although I have five years I want to get my schooling over with ASAP. The programs are usually 3-4 semesters long. Most of the programs are CSU's like Sacramento State, Long Beach, or Fresno State. There's also a few private university's that offer it like Azusa Pacific University. Some of the programs offer the chance to obtain your Masters as well. I do not recommend trying to apply to these programs and taking classes before you get a school nurse position. It won't help you and I believe some of these programs require you to already have your preliminary license which you can't get without a job. I'm personally looking at Sacramento State because the whole program is online and I only have to go to the campus twice a semester for an exam on a Saturday. Now if you work for an awesome school or school district like I do they will pay for your tuition (Yay! No more loans!). My school district will also pay for me to take an Audiometry course so that I can become certified by the State to do the hearing screening for my district. Right now as I'm finishing up screening I have a nurse from the county coming to help me to do the audio screening while I do the vision. I found a class by CSU San Bernardino that's online for the Spring semester and I only have to drive to CSUSB on a Saturday at the end for the final exam. That way next year I can do the hearing and vision screening on my own. 

That's pretty much it! And trust me it's more work than you think. School nursing is not an easy little job. I'm so busy I don't have time to look at the clock and I barely have time for lunch. I'm going to do another post about what I actually do because it's a lot more than band-aids and lice. Let me know if you guys have more questions!

If you're looking for an excellent site to find School Nursing jobs try EDJOIN!

Friday, February 8, 2013

Job Update

Hey guys! Just a little update on my new job as a school nurse: I'm in the middle of packing and getting things together to drive down to Southern California on Sunday. I start Tuesday and I'm super excited and filled with butterflies. I also can't wait to bust my scrubs out of storage tomorrow! Wish me luck and I have a LONG drive ahead of me.  Thank goodness for the aux plug in my car! I'm shooting to have Part II of Resumes up by Monday night, but we'll see how things go with the unpacking and getting ready for the big day. As a little treat to hold everyone over, here's a little song for those of you out there that need some extra support right now. It's called "Can't Bring Me Down" by Karina. It's a great motivator and it's my personal theme song so enjoy!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Resumes: Part I



Okay ladies and gentlemen. Your resume is the meat and potatoes of your job search. This is what gets you an interview. There are books upon books, seminars, courses, and tutorials beyond belief on how to compose your resume. Although there's plenty of information out there it can be a bit overwhelming and there's so much contradiction. 1 page vs. 2 page resume. Objective vs. no objective. Arial vs. Times New Roman. It goes on and on and pretty much ridiculous. The biggest challenge is filtering through all the information to find what fits best for YOU! It pretty much comes down to the personal preference of whoever is looking at your resume and not what Doctor so and so says in his books about resumes. It's not fair but there is NO STANDARD for a resume format. There are a few agreements within the job hiring community. I'm going to share with you guys the format of my current resume, that landed me my current job. I am in no way saying this is the best and only way. This is just my current resume. You're more than welcome to use it, ignore it, modify it, etc. Remember that everything I post here is to help you guys out!

First off, I'm going to explain how I reached my current version of my resume. The most important thing is to have as many people look at it as possible. My mom, classmates, professors, career centers, neighbors, the clerks at my mom's job, and so on. I also posted it on Allnurses.com under their Nurse Resume Help section to get some great feedback from the members. However, you don't need to take every and all advice you receive. Like I mentioned earlier, even some of the comments from the members on allnurses.com contradicted each other and I had to decided which advice was best for me.

There are a few things I believe each resume should have. Again, this is coming from my personal opinion, research, and advice from others along my resume journey to perfection.

  1. Simple font. It doesn't have to be Times New Roman, but make sure it's a Monotype Font. Keeps your font size at 12 or 11 point.
  2. If printing it please spend a few bucks and get professional resume paper with a watermark. You can buy it anywhere from Walmart to OfficeMax. Stick to neutral colors. No bright pinks or greens. It's not the time to be super creative. 
  3. Keep your formatting plain except for your name. No italics anywhere and only bold your name. Please include your degree and license after your name (Last Name, Degree, RN is the format) and remember to not include your degree or license until after you graduate or pass NCLEX. It will be considered fraud and in most states the RN title is protected under law and you could face serious consequences if you use RN without having your license. 
  4. When writing your job description use action verbs at the beginning of each statement. Example, Sorted files, entered data, received and made calls, etc. 
  5. If you have room on your resume, yes I'm suggesting to keep it to one page, put in your clinical experiences. While applying for jobs I noticed that Magnet hospitals were asking for this information to be incorporated in to your resume and I decided to make it a permanent space. It gives hospitals ideas of what type of hospitals and floors you've been trained in and how many hours. It's also a great for those that have no work experience. You can also add what type of patients you worked with and a summary of skills you performed at the facility. Try to be concise and don't be repetitive. 
  6. If you have volunteer experience add it! Even if it was for an hour or for a non-nursing or medical reason. Any and all volunteer experience is a great way to show you care. 
This concludes Part I! I'll try to get Part II out soon for you guys but hopefully this was enough information to hold you over until then. Also, if you look over to the right I have a new poll up. I'm thinking about making a Facebook page to go with the blog to give out updates and get opinions from you guys on what you want me to write about. I'm even thinking contest in the future like giving away a NCLEX study book or gift cards to Amazon. My ideas can only go so far and I would love feedback from everyone. Thanks for reading!