Every school district has certain requirements and positions, and most districts have a limited number of nursing positions. Where I worked, school nurses were required to be RNs but some school districts hire EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians, also known as Paramedics) and LPNs (Licensed Practical Nurses) depending on what their budgets allow.

Being a school nurse can be great fun, layered with lots of responsibility. Your subjects are kids in kindergarten through the 12th grade, and some districts even have pre-K. Therefore, you need to be knowledgeable about the developmental milestones appropriate to your assignment. I say “assignment” because you rarely have a choice as to which age group you’ll be working with. Usually you are assigned to a school by the district leaders.

As a school nurse, one of your responsibilities is the maintenance of student health records, including vaccination requirements. There are mandated records each district needs to maintain. Medications are administered from the nurse’s office for all students requiring daily medication. You will likely treat many chronic illnesses, like asthma, allergies, and a host of developmental disabilities. If you end up working in a high school or middle school, you may be also responsible for arranging sports physicals and clearing students to play.

Many times, it is the school nurse who first picks up the signs and symptoms of an illness that requires medical attention. I remember a little girl, in the 3rd grade, who had symptoms of juvenile diabetes, and so I instructed her mom to follow up with her doctor. After the diagnosis was confirmed, she needed to learn to self inject insulin and monitor her blood sugar. The child and her mom were both very scared and nervous. I worked with them for months and taught them how to manage this disease. I still see the mother around town, and she tells me that her daughter, now all grown up, is doing very well. As a school nurse, you do make a difference. Teaching health practices on an individual level is a very important aspect of the position.

Related searches:
Nursing Jobs
Travel Nursing

Nursing jobs and healthcare workers affected by Florida law designed to crackdown on fraud

A little-noticed provision in the 160-page measure is preventing doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and others licensed by the state from working in Florida if they have old felony convictions for fraud or drugs.

The law, which went into effect July 1, prohibits applicants who’ve had such convictions – even if unrelated to Medicaid or other government programs – from getting new or renewed licenses until at least 15 years after they’ve completed their sentences, including probation. The ban also applies to no contest pleas and cases where judges have withheld findings of guilt. More than 30 license applications have been denied or withdrawn because of the law.

Here’s the irony: The provision covers only those who have violated Florida or federal laws. Applicants convicted of the same crimes in other states can still be licensed in Florida.

“To favor people who commit their crimes out of state doesn’t make any sense,” said Anna Small, legislative counsel for the Florida Nurses Association. Read full story.

Nurses Forum offers information about nursing jobs, travel nursing, forensic nursing, forums, a directory of nursing schools in the United States plus continuing education and career opportunities.

An NMC report reveals that the regulator received 1,759 complaints judged to be suitable for further investigation in 2008-2009, an increase of over 18% compared to the 1,487 in 2007-2008.

This represents the highest number of allegations received by the UK’s largest health professional regulator since 2005, according to the NMC

Nearly 15% of complaints related to charges of dishonesty including theft, false claims to registration with the NMC and sleeping while on duty.

Ian Todd, director of fitness to practise at the NMC, said ‘We have no objective evidence to explain why the number of complaints has increased. However, members of the public have increasing expectations of the standards of care they should receive and we live in a consumer society in which people are more willing to complain when they have received poor care.’

Visit Nurses Forum for information about nursing jobs and travel nursing.

“I’ve been a nurse since 1969 and have experienced different economic up and down turns,” said Linda Norman, DSN, RN, FAAN, senior associate dean for academics at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee. “There has always been a sustained need for nurses and a shortage of nurses.”

“Nursing not only is a recession-proof profession but it is one that has multiple opportunities,” Norman added. “The value of nursing is being appreciated throughout the health care industry.”

“The number of nurses who graduated has gone up during the last 40 years, but, the interesting piece is the demand for nurses also has increased,” Norman said. “Nursing programs have had difficulty keeping up with the demand.”

Pat Witzel, RN and chief nursing officer at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center located in New York, stated, “Nursing is not generally affected by the economy. People becoming ill or needing health care services is not dependent on what happens economically.”

The average age of a nurse  is almost 50 years with many possibly retiring soon.

“The workforce will be consistently losing nurses during the next five, 10, 15 years, and those nurses will need to be replaced,” said Hila Richardson, director of the undergraduate, continuing education and community health programs at New York University (NYU) College of Nursing.

Nursing jobs  and travel nursing  will always be in demand because people will always need medical care, however schools are just not producing enough nurses.