Job of the BSN nurse

Specialties Home Health

Published

What is the job of the RN with a BSN in community health? What would his/her role be in caring for a patient when there is also an LPN/LVN and a FNP on the team?

In California BSN nurses are required to do a 90 hour practicum in Public Health/ Community Health. It focuses on Public health areas such as communicable disease assessment, epidemiology, assessment of the health of the community as a whole and community intervention and education. I am an ADN and am just finishing an RN-BSN program. I have learned a lot about evidence based practice, research, leadership, and public health. I think that a BSN would be helpful to a bedside nurse and is essential to someone working in community/ public health.

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Oh, and the RN-BSN program I am finishing only costs $3600. Not anywhere near $75,000

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Most BSN programs I have looked into are at least 10K. My nurse friends that are in classes have to take things like statistics and are always doing research papers. I do not think they have to do any public/community health class. That would be a good thing if they did. At this time in my life I can not fit school in with home life and work not to mention tuition.

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My BSN program had a course in public/community nursing and was designated as an educational program that led to awarding of the Public Health Nurse certificate to go along with the RN license. Not all BSN programs have this option attached to their program.

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Specializes in Home Health.
Oh, and the RN-BSN program I am finishing only costs $3600. Not anywhere near $75,000

What BSN program are you in? I've been an RN for 26 years and considered the BSN when it became available through a nearby university with all work done on computer from home, but I learned that it would cost $30,000+ and decided I would never see a return on this investment.

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Western Governors RN-BSN, http://www.wgu.edu

I'm nearly done and I started September 1, 2011. I had all of my pre-reqs done already. It is competency based so you can move through the classes at your own rate. You pay for time, not units. It costs $3,600 for 6 months. I will finish easily in 6 months and I work full time and have 4 children.

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and is CCNE accredited and accepted by the BRN in California for the Public Health Nurse Advanced Practice Certificate.

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Hi heatheryk, how did things work out for you? Did you graduate ? Did you get the Public Health Nurse certificate from the state? Fill me in... I'm starting WGU Oct 1.

Thanks!

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

In the past ADN programs did not teach the role of community health/home health nurse. Those courses were taught at BSN level as not required for initial RN licensure.

Community and home health nurses scope of practice involves caring beyond an individual patient. We often have a broader focus on patient/family and community as a whole. Working as a staff level RN in private duty or intermittent skilled agency, you may not be exposed or participate in these roles.

As one grows and moves to an advanced level in home health, these skills are developed:

a. Educate and provide direct health care services to vulnerable and at risk populations:

Seniors; infants and childern 1st 2yrs life; working poor; immigrants, etc.

b. Develop knowledge basis about locally available health care programs and services to improve access to care:

How to obtain medications when without insurance, free/reduced fee health and dental clinics, federal, state and NP run health clinics, community health centers; free screening exam locations

c. Learn how to assess a "community" for health needs; Monitor health trends and identify health risk factors unique to specific communities

d. Set local priorities for health-related interventions to provide the greatest benefit to the most people

e. Advocate with local, state and federal authorities to improve access to health services for underserved communities

f. Design and implement health education campaigns and disease prevention activities, such as immunizations and screenings

These are skills I learned about in my BSN program and have developed to high level over past 25yrs in homecare to the point I am the "go to person" by Senior Mgmt and Health System Administration for linking staff, family members and information on services in 5 county area; provide website links for healthcare legislation & health insurance's policy and procedures and write/lobby legislators at state and national level.

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HI LG1137, I finished in January. (I started 9/1/11) I had no problem getting my PHN from the state. Loved WGU. A word of advice...When you start classes, start by going to taskstream and looking at the tasks. Then copy and paste the task rubric into a word processing document. WGU doesn't mind if you use the rubric as headings in the paper you turn in. This way you make sure that you are answering all of the points asked for in the rubric. The only work that you have to turn in are the tasks. You do not have to do any of the assignments in the course if you don't want to. The online text books are searchable. I used this to finish the tasks with the least amount of time and energy.

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