Childhood Obesity jobs

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Pediatrics, Home health.

Hi all,

with the childhood obesity epidemic growing, you would think there would be more programs, clinics, research being done, in turn opening more jobs. I'm very interested in working in that specialty, but can't seem to find any jobs, or ever where to start looking for jobs as a nurse in that field. Any ideas on where to start my search. I'm usually really good at finding things on google, but and having trouble with this subject.It seems like most the people in this field are dieticians or doctors. Any ideas on where to start my search would be greatly appreciated.

0 Votes
Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

Check with pediatric endocrinology clinics. I am sure this exists in our community, I simply have no professional pediatric knowlege.

Hi all,

with the childhood obesity epidemic growing, you would think there would be more programs, clinics, research being done, in turn opening more jobs. I'm very interested in working in that specialty, but can't seem to find any jobs, or ever where to start looking for jobs as a nurse in that field. Any ideas on where to start my search. I'm usually really good at finding things on google, but and having trouble with this subject.It seems like most the people in this field are dieticians or doctors. Any ideas on where to start my search would be greatly appreciated.

0 Votes
Specializes in Pedi.

The hospital I used to work at had a program they called the "OWL program". It stood for "Optimal Weight for Life". As far as I can tell from their website, this program does not employ nurses- they have MDs, NPs, Nutritionists and psychologists.

0 Votes

Go to chca.com

click on member hospitals to see list with links of leading children's hospital

search the various websites using weight management clinic or program and you will find lots of info

BUT the poblem is $$ ....very few of the services provided within the program are billable to third-party payors. A few things here and there but not much. Takes a lot of FTE's to run the programs and very little revenue in. Most of the programs are subsidized by the facilites, run on a shoestring budget and included as a "community benefit" in their annual report. Not a ton of opportunites.

For the most part, the role of the nurse is to manage and coordinate all the moving parts of the interdisciplinary program and to provide patient / family education.

Hope that helps a bit

0 Votes

One of our school nurses was able to get a grant to employ her full-time while she did research and screenings on all the kids in the district for childhood obesity. They found a lot of kids with high blood pressure and pre-diabetes (some who were of normal weight as well) so it was a worthwhile project and eye-opening for the state. However, her grant is now over so it's not a permanent route but you might want to look into grants offered by your state. School nurses also promote wellness programs in their schools for students and staff in addition to all their other duties. Also, some colleges around here occasionally will have a program that's funded for students to do research and/or offer activities and community education and a nurse to head it up but the nurse has to have her master's degree and become part of their teaching staff. I agree you would think there would be more of those types of jobs but maybe it's because more nutritionists head this type of thing up than nurses. I've also been interested in this type of work.

0 Votes
+ Add a Comment