guys are you familiar with nurse.com or scrubs nursing magazine?

Rbeck911, BSN, RN · Aug 12, 2014

Us occ health nurses don't get much love. We are kind of bad asses though, really. We are the perfect combo of ER, case management, risk and safety, and community health.

I prefer to not see it as our industry being ignored, but that we rock and others are jealous... After all, ask just about any med surg nurse or ER nurse if they would enjoy Occ Health and the answer is commonly yes. Not to mention, we don't have a Doctor right there as a safety net. When the crap hits the fan, its sh*t or get time for an occ health nurse.

nurseEsteve · Aug 12, 2014

I tried searching it two days ago the only thing i found is from nursing times and states OHN: why nurses dont prefer occupational health nursing as a career. An article which they made 2 years ago i think and a study on OHNs contribution in the workplace.

nurse.Esteve

Rbeck911, BSN, RN · Aug 13, 2014

Can you link that article please?

Constructionohn · Sep 11, 2014

You got that right. This is not a nursing position for those without a strong constitution!

I would like to see more about what we do in the general nurse magazines. But then, I guess that means someone (insert voice clearing sound here) has got to write a couple articles for a nursing magazine or two. :writing: I guess it is just like other specialty nursing types ... we don't really make ourselves well known.

The only nurses I have personally ever had a conversation with that disliked the job were those that really didn't understand what an occupational health nurse is or does. Too bad there isn't more about it in nursing schools - though I do think that is improving slightly.

katkonk, BSN, RN · Dec 3, 2014

Shhhhhhhh......I like to think of our specialty as one of the best kept nursing secrets around :) So much of our work is primary care and administrative (case management, FMLA, etc.), and even though we do some emergency response, it is definitely not the norm. Lots of rehab/ primary care type interventions in the Cumulative trauma/ Repetitive motion area, and I don't think that is "sexy" enough for most nurses to be interested in. Most nurses that I try to recruit are fairly clueless in the primary care end of the work. It has to be that special nurse that has a love for all the teaching in basics from how to take care of yourself with a URI, to recognizing staph infections to babying tendonitis until it calms down to the big emergency response issues. And respirators and hearing loss don't get many people excited. If you want to read about Occ Health issues, the best resource is joining AAOHN and becoming ABOHN certified.