It’s Summertime but I Still Need to Feed My Children…
When Freedom Stopped Ringing...
Today is July 4th… a day when USA citizens have traditionally celebrated their freedoms. A day of family get togethers and picnics. A day of fireworks.
But a day of fear? Not in the past so much.
However, today there are many folks feeling fear.
Fear for their freedoms…
Fear for their lives…
Fear for their livelihoods…
While some still may be greeting friends with, “Happy 4th of July!,” I will not.
There is nothing happy about watching freedoms stripped from citizens of our USA.
There is nothing happy about knowing how many will be stripped of healthcare.
There is nothing happy about watching good people being snatched off the street, out of schools, hospitals, churches, workplaces and thrown into subhuman detention centers.
No… I will not be celebrating today. Instead, I will scan pictures taken when my young women were girls, when all three were alive and we lived in freedom with fear pushed to the far edges of our lives.
“It’s summertime, but I still need to feed my children.”
Not something I’ve said recently (or ever), but then, my children are grown up and taking care of their own provisions. I, also, knew I had a summer job right where I worked year-round.
Moms of young children who took the school nursing position because it maximizes family time may find themselves in a bit of a financial crunch in the summer.
In order to mitigate the no income over the summer split up the payouts so they carry through the summer, but then the paychecks are lower throughout the year to compensate.
What to do? Where to go? How do we stretch a dollar?
One way is to take a job as a summer camp nurse. It capitalizes on the transference of skills the school nurse already possess.
The pros may include camp experience for your own children at no extra cost to you. Your children are outside playing in the sun, interacting with other children, and learning lots of new skills.
The cons are sunburns, mosquito bites, and rarely, medical emergencies.
Some school nurses keep a per diem or part time job at the hospital they formerly worked at. They are available to cover more shifts during the summertime. It helps throughout the year if your 10-month salary is doled out over 12-months.
The pros—it is a job they are familiar with; many times, they make more money per hour than during their school nursing job.
The cons—they have less time with their own children.
School Nurses that came from a doctor’s office setting may query their former employer about covering current nurse’s summer vacations.
The pros—it is a job they are familiar with, and it can be great working amongst friends and touching base with familiar patients.
The cons—if it is not a large practice with lots of nurses you may not have as many hours as you need.
Travel Nurse - If you are unencumbered with children or issues that keep you anchored in town, you might try a two-month travel assignment.
The pros—these jobs often come with extra perks such as higher pay, travel and housing reimbursement. It can be a fun way to travel yourself.
The cons—if you have children and responsibilities at home, this is not really an option, unless you can choose a setting close by.
Agency Nursing, this is another way of picking up either one-on-one nursing or filling in for vacationing nurses in nursing homes, clinics or hospitals.
The pros—you can pick and choose your assignments, tailoring them to your interests. You also get to choose the how much you work, where and when you work.
The cons—you may not get the cream of the crop assignments.
My employer expected me to accept the six-week summer position to cover summer school, taking the summer off wasn’t really an option. You might want to check with your local district to see if there is a school nursing need right in your own district.
If there is not, it might be worth querying other nearby districts.
Children with disabilities often have a six-week Summer School—skills maintenance program that is part of their IEP (Individual Education Plan). Some school districts maintain a program in district.
Other school districts ship the children out to other public-school districts or private programs developed by other enterprising agencies.
Our small rural district that our Sheila attended did not initially have a summer program. One year she was farmed out to a local private program that was developed for children deemed not able to be educated in district.
This was not a good option for Sheila. Her behaviors deteriorated badly due to her highly skilled ability to imitate the way other people behave. If other children experience challenging behaviors and act out, Sheila would model these behaviors.
This was the major reason why we wanted her in an inclusive environment where she could model socially more typical behaviors.
The following year we said, “no thank you,” when that option was raised. (I may not have been quite that polite—it was more like, “no freaking way am I going to allow you to send her there”—was much closer to what I said.)
That left us with another private school that ran a summer program. Technically, it should have been a better fit. The first year, it actually was an okay fit. Unfortunately, the following summer their summer staff decided to seat in the shade 100 feet away from the playground equipment.
Let’s just say that when Sheila came home with her skin scraped raw with a massive “road rash” on the left side of her face. She also had bruises underlying the road rash from forehead to chin and “no one saw what happened,” I kept her home the rest of the summer.
It was at this point our school district started applying for grants to start their own 6-week summer program and a nurse became a need.
It may take some time to sort through your options, but there are ways for school nurses to find as much or as little work as they want during the summer months.
If you are not in need of employment but you are wondering how to get ahead of some of the relentless paperwork that accompanies school nursing, The Relentless School Nurse has great suggestions here:
https://relentlessschoolnurse.com/2023/07/15/the-relentless-school-nurse-the-sweet-spot-of-summer/
They include: rest and relaxation, professional development (because who has time for that during the busy school year?), reviewing and updating policies, reviewing student health care plans, supplies and inventories, collaborating with others, emergency preparedness and connecting with community resources.
If it is summer employment, you are looking for, look around… there are several good options. Find the one that best fits your family’s needs.
If it is a way to better organize yourself for the coming school year, the Relentless School Nurse has some great tips.
But before doing anything else, find ways to “fill your own well” in the process. Find reasons to celebrate you and your family.
A human, not an AI text generator, wrote this essay.
I am not a doctor, neither do I play one on TV. This is an information only newsletter.
For specific medical advice please see your primary care provider.
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What a great article on how to fill your own well in the process of putting your family's needs first. Thank you for sharing this!
I loved hearing how you made your professional and personal life work (whilst bringing up children) I was fortunate, as a teacher I got the bonus of holidays with my three children, and the pay cheque still coming in.
I’m glad you had Sheila’s needs at the forefront of your mind, whatever the logistics of your own working life. What a great mother Nancy 💪