Community Health Nurse

I am not but wanted to welcome you to allnurses. You might also try posting in the school nurse section. Good luck

I have already have a master's in public health and have worked in public health before. I am trying to decide if I want to get a BSN as well.

I absolutly love public health. Not everyone does though, and it can be hard to get into and keep a steady job in (I'm hoping a nursing degree will help with this) because most public health folks are paid by grants that usually end at some point. To do well in public health you really have to know the right people I think, but I'm not sure what nursing does to help with this.

I like public health becuase it allows you to be creative and it exposes you to tons of different things (i.e. politics, research, lots of people, TV production, advertising, design, implmentation etc.). It can be frusterating though becuase it is really hard to get people to change their lifestyles to be heathier.

After researching this a little more, this is not what I perhaps thought that it was. What I'm looking for is an area of nursing that will help me with my goal of serving the poorest underserved communities. Not necessarily in an ER type setting, but more in the basic health care vein. I saw a job description on the Indian Health Affairs website that listed a Community Health Nurse, and the description was for someone to help the community by providing general nursing care and education on the basics of hygiene, safe sex practices, pre and post natal care, etc. This sounded like exactly the kind of job I would hope to get someday, so I thought that was the specialty I needed. Guess not!! Thanks for the input though! :)

Working with Indian Health Services, Kitty, you would be working with some of the poorest and underserved. The Native Americans are in desperate need of good nurses who want to help them get good health care. You don't have to be a community health nurse to do this. Their clinics and their hospitals would love to have nurses who really want to make a difference.

Hello! I just finished my BSN, which was my second degree. I love public health, and did my final leadership rotation (basically a full time job) with the Baltimore County Public Health Department. It was so wonderful....I got to really know my patients, who were primarily pregnant Hispanic women who knew little or no English and had no health insurance. I did home visits with these patients. We also had well-child clinics, immunization clinics, STD clinics, and worked with TB patients (to insure they are taking their meds correctly).

When I graduated from the BSN program, I planned to go right into PHN (public health nursing) but the health department was so slow in contacting me (typical government!) that I was forced to take a job on a med-surg floor at a nearby hospital. I am miserable now, and have just interviewed with the health department in hopes that they will take me now! I feel a little guilty about quitting my med surg job, but it's so stressful and unholistic--exactly the opposite of PHN. My question (which is posted under the "generalized" topics) is which RN experience is better for someone going back to school to become a Family NP: med-surg or PHN.

Anyway, I loved public health and strongly encourage you to look into working for your local health department! They are suffering from the nursing shortage too. PHN does pay less, but the 9 to 5 Monday through Friday schedule can't be beat....not to mention the satisfaction of knowing that what you're doing is truly unique and helping those who often have no other access to health care.