Career path for working with adolescents - sex ed, drug prevention, depression, etc.

[BetterSafe]

Hi All, I will be graduating with my ADN this fall, and plan to get my BSN right away (I have a BS in an unrelated field, so I only need a few credits). So far, I feel very discouraged about the working conditions in the hospitals, and just don't feel it is for me. There is one area I feel excitement about; that is working with adolescents. It is a population that needs so much guidance about health issues, and so much good can be done to help them create healthy lives for themselves. I feel I have a lot to offer if I could find (or create) an opportunity to teach young people about and assist with health issues affecting them: depression and suicide, drug use, body issues, eating disorders, and especially sexual health. I would also love to work with pregnant teens. One idea I feel called to do is education about shaken baby syndrome prevention.

Will others please share with me ideas about where I can do this work, and how to go about it?

Thanks!

[bergren]

I assume that you guessed right that a high school school health office is one place as well as school based health centers in high schools. You probably need a masters to work with adolescents exclusively the way you describe. The roles would be different depending on which masters you would get: Mental Health Clinical Nurse SPecialist, Masters in Public Health, Masters in Health Education, and others - the career paths with each of these would be different. Is ther any way with the BSN community class you could precept with nurses or others in these roles? If not, ask to take an independent study to do so.

It is great that you are so passionate to work with this age group.

[mustlovepoodles, RN]

Either Public Health or Psychiatric nursing would probably fit the bill.