Question for commun. health folks

Specialties Public/Community

Published

Specializes in Mostly: Occup Health; ER; Informatics.

I have a question for those of you in community health clinics, esp. if hospital-affiliated. Do you have a doctor or NP or PA in the clinic all the time? Do they see patients Q15 min. like in a private practice?

As a former ER nurse, I had a doctor present in the unit all the time, which was great. As a student nurse in a volunteer community clinic, we had one doc and a handful of 2nd-year med students present in the clinic. As an occ-health nurse, I don't even have one even on call (but then I seldom need one).

I continue to think about what I want to do when I grow up :) and fondly remember those two doc-nearby settings, even though I like the 100% autonomy of occ health. Please tell me about your clinic situation, so I have more info about what I might do next. Thanks!

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Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.

I'd say about half of our clinics have a doctor on the premises. Our health department is essentially nurse run with protocols for just about everything.

I work in the WIC setting. We don't have doctors at all. I'm the only nurse and my role is screening and education. I make limited referrals.

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Specializes in med/surg, psych, public health.

Our health dept. has 2 Dr.'s & 3 NP's (& numerous RN's). Yes, they see pt.'s Q15.

Public health depts. vary on their services & size depending on the population size & whether

the dept.'s are located in the city or rural areas.

See if you can shadow a nurse for a day or so at your local health dept., you might find your

niche is public health!

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We have an FNP full time and our medical director comes one afternoon a week. Our patient assessments and treatments are done per standing orders. We are a small rural health dept.

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