Need advice pls

[BrooklynRN2008, BSN, MSN, RN]

I am a recent ADN grad and have just been offered a position as junior public health nurse working in a health department clinic with TB and HIV patients.

My main interest has always been public health/home health but I do realize that a new grad needs some hospital experience. Should I accept this position or get hospital experience first?

Many thanks for any tips, advice

[ARRR10]

I asked the same thing to the public health nurse manager (I just graduated with my BSN in August 08) and she told me that public health nursing is its own specialized field that does not necessarily need hospital experience first. She told me that in the past, they required hospital experience, but now it is not required. Where I live, new public health nurses are trained for at least a year until they are eligible to proceed to the next level of a public health nurse. If public health nursing is what you really want to do, I say go for it, that is what I am doing:wink2: