Public health nurses work to promote general health and wellness in the population. They work to prevent, manage, and even perhaps, eradicate the spread of infections and diseases, as well as developmental delays in infants and children. They aim to prolong the life of a population by safeguarding it from health threats and complications. Public health nurses are very valuable in making the efforts of public health successful.
Public Health Nursing Responsibilities
Your job as a public health nurse revolves around making and keeping the population’s health optimal. So, you are typically tasked with planning and implementing health programs geared toward educating the common population on basic and major health issues, be it as an individual or as a member of a group. You engage yourself in teaching preventive care (infections and diseases), proper nutrition, immunization and responsible child care. You also oversee, monitor or facilitate health screening clinics. Your usual activities include cholesterol and blood pressure testing and immunization drives. You also do individual home visits to patients with communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and visits to infants born prematurely or children with disabilities. Once you have identified the general health issues in given communities, you work to develop health intervention measures. A public health nurse wears many hats and you will need the ability to identify issues, plan interventions and carry them out effectively.
Education and Training
Public health nursing requires a degree and extensive training. If you have a busy schedule and can’t attend courses in person, you can get a great start with the education you'll need by enrolling in an accredited online nursing school. As a public health nurse, you are a Registered nurse with a four-year bachelor’s degree or RN-BSN. You should also attend nurse training courses on public health practices, epidemiology, environmental health, infectious diseases and biostatistics. You will also need to keep your continuing education units up to date and take your units in subjects that touch on public health. A great way to find out exactly what course you should take is to contact your local public health department and speak to one of the supervising public health nurses.
County public health departments require certification to work as a public health nurse. You need to take care of your continuing education and coordinate with the American Public Health Association (APHA). They oversee the granting of professional certification for a public nurse like you. You should also regularly attend workshops and seminars to keep yourself abreast with the latest developments in your field. After certification, you will be an RN, BSN-PHN and will be qualified to work in many different environments.
Skills Required
Working as a public health nurse requires a wide range of skills, in order to accommodate the wide range of health issues that you will encounter. Experience working with a wide range of people and illnesses will prepare you for this job. Here is a detailed list of necessary skills for public health nursing:
- Good communication skills
- Ability to work with a variety of people and cultures
- Knowledge of epidemiology and infectious diseases facing the population today
- Knowledge of childhood development and working with disabled, premature or critically ill children and infants
- Ability to travel within your county to homes in the community, schools and health fairs
- Knowledge of a foreign language or languages that are necessary to reach out to minority populations in your area
- Strong desire to help your community as a whole
- Good organizational and planning skills
You will also need a strong commitment to nursing. Public health nursing requires heavy motivation and a passion for health promotion. This will reflect as you work with the public to educate and model good health practices. As the saying goes, you need to practice what you preach. The general public can readily sense if you are tentative or insincere about the things that you need to do.
You will need to adhere to county policies and procedures that are the foundation for public health programs. As a public health nurse, you should strive to enhance your problem solving skills. You may be involved in critical situations and your ability to take the appropriate action is very important. You should also improve both your communication skills and interpersonal skills. You day-to-day tasks require you to directly interact with people and other medical and non-medical professionals. You should be able to express your ideas and relate with everybody as the need arises.
Salary and Job Opportunities
The demand for public health nurses continues to grow. With the demand for health education, care in the home and less hospitalization, public health nursing is expected to grow into the year 2018.
The starting salary for a public health nurse is about $60,000 per year and can reach up to $80,000 per year with experience in the field. There are usually great health and retirement benefits with this job as well. If you are a public health nurse within the school district, you also have the benefit of working while your kids are in school and taking the same holiday periods, so daycare is essentially eliminated.
Some of the things you will be doing are school nursing, working with parents of premature or disabled children and infants to teach parents how to optimize their development. You will run a team of nurses that work with patients that have communicable diseases, delivering medication and health education to prevent the spread of disease. You will run health fairs in your community, visit schools to do health education workshops and even mentor new nurses. There are so many exciting possibilities with this nursing role.
Public health nursing is a challenging, yet rewarding career. You will meet many new faces and reap many benefits with promoting health education to the public. You will also enjoy a great salary and ample benefits. If you love working with people, problem solving and light travel, then public health nursing is the career for you.