Low nurse wages in Health Department - worth it?

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I was curious if the wages are across the board low for RN's who work in health

departments? For those of you who work in this area...do you feel the low salary is worth

it? I understand there are no weekends,holidays, call..is there ever overtime?

RN's make 38-40K a yr. working in the health departments in my area - and this is with a

BSN and experience.

Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.

I work part-time with the local health department. I started at $30.00 per hour ($62,400/yr for 40 hours a week) and I receive all of the same benefits as full time employees. When working in the hospital, I would make over $30.00/hour when shift differentials and week-end pay were included.

I am sure that every state and area are different. PH nurses in my state make approx $40,000 a year and they do have good benefits. I am not going to say the state because of what I am about to say. The administration for the health departments were the biggest bunch of snobs I had ever seen. The administrator was not a RN or PA or MD or DO. They were minute managers, bored most of the day I think. Most of the professionals acted like they were worked to death when I thought "good grief, I would die of boredom." I was doing my NP clinical rotation and a NP shared with me an experience she had with the nursing board. SO I shared mine which occurred 8 years prior and was concerning a personal matter that happened almost 15 years ago. This had nothing to do with patient care. I was told the next week that I could not return to that site, I almost got kicked out of my NP program and was told that they did not feel safe with me learning there. I was very upset. They had signed a contract, obviously broke it, I had passed a background check to get into my school and had gone through a federal back ground check for a job about 5 years ago. So.......just saying "watch your back and who you tell any personal stuff too!!" Some of the staff that worked there also said that they were policy happy and would write a new policy for every little thing and then ding you on them. I do know the NP I followed had to go by like 4 different guidelines and some contradicted each other. Just sounds like a disaster to me.

Specializes in Public Health.

Is it a huge pay-cut compared to hospital nursing? Yes. I turned down a job at a VA hospital for my current public health position - I took the lower-paying position because honestly, it was well worth it. The benefits are excellent. The hours are convenient and flexible. I don't ever feel compelled to drag myself to work when I'm sick. I get weekends off, holidays off, and recently, they adjusted my schedule to fit in with my school schedule since I am starting grad school. Public health, besides being the part of nursing I am really passionate about, has a flexibility that other nursing specialties do not. I can set my own pace and look out for my own sanity. Plus, I am not as physically drained. It's mentally a very challenging job, but it is easier on my body.

I think the work/life balance is well worth it. Plus, public health comes with immense networking opportunities while on the job, and many times, that's how you move up. Public health has amazing opportunities for upward mobility.

The hours are convenient and flexible. I don't ever feel compelled to drag myself to work when I'm sick. I get weekends off, holidays off, and recently, they adjusted my schedule to fit in with my school schedule since I am starting grad school. Public health, besides being the part of nursing I am really passionate about, has a flexibility that other nursing specialties do not. I can set my own pace and look out for my own sanity. Plus, I am not as physically drained. It's mentally a very challenging job, but it is easier on my body.

I think the work/life balance is well worth it. Plus, public health comes with immense networking opportunities while on the job, and many times, that's how you move up. Public health has amazing opportunities for upward mobility.

Can I ask what kind of public health job you have? I have an interest in epidemiology but I feel like I should go into bedside nursing for experience first.

Also what are your hours? Are they daily monday to friday? Or is that flexible like bedside nursing too?

Specializes in Public Health.

The work hours normally are M-F, 8 to 5 with an hour lunch at my work, but there are multiple options for "alternative" work schedules where you can work your 4 hours in different permutations.

The work days are set M-F for me, but I feel like if anything, it's more flexible than bedside nursing because there's no clock in/clock out environment. You have a set work schedule, but let's say you're a parent and want to make it to an activity at your kid's school, or you have something planned with your spouse for an anniversary. You can almost always just let your supe know you are "flexing" off a couple hours and will make them up by taking a shorter lunch another day or adding a little bit to your other shifts.

I work in child welfare services/foster care, and I get to spend time in the field doing assessments or home visits, in the community doing education, and yes, time at the desk doing some "case management" type things such as making sure parents are able to navigate the health systems and access services.

Every program in public health is so different, I feel like there could be a program of interest to everyone.

I have a desk job (in Epidemiology, mostly disease investigations) but our arrangement is similar to vickymarie's. I thought at first that I would miss the three day workweeks....I do miss the 5- and 6-day stretches of time off, of course, but this schedule is WAY more conducive to having a normal life. I had forgotten how most people can get off work, walk the dog, go to the gym, go out to eat, and hang out with other humans for hours instead of just getting home, wolfing down food and passing out!

We do clock in and out rather than work on a salary - which I mostly appreciate, because it means I never work even one minute longer than 40 hours/week (no budget for OT in public health!) - but it's not a "shift work" mentality like the hospital. I can stay one night, and then take a couple hours for an appointment another day. We also have formal flex schedules - for instance, I work five 8's one week, and four 10's the next week. And we can work from home 3 days/month. My supervisors are very flexible, as long as the nurses coordinate our plans so that there are enough people in the office.

As vickymarie said, PH jobs/departments vary a lot, so it depends on your program. But overall, I think that a lot of PH departments retain nurses because of the flexibility and the humane pace (and often the benefits) - they make up for the lower pay.

Specializes in Care Coordination, Care Management.

I would LOVE to work at my local health department. Everyone there is so great.

I took a 20 percent pay cut per hour when i went from working med surg nightshift to day shift at the urgent care. It was worth it to me bc i was miserable on nightshift.

Im sure others think this was a crazy move but it was more about quality of life and less about money for me!

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