NEW GRAD

itinerantPHNAK · Mar 15, 2014

Thats awesome that you are really trying to figure out what you want to do in nursing, however, it might be best to just get some experience. The longer out you are from graduation, the harder it is to find a position. You also dont want to lose your new knowledge in nursing.

Any experience is good experience. You glean health and wellness education from almost any position. Teaching is a large part of what nurses do in almost all settings.

If you are unsure about what is right for you, give something a shot and work from there.

good luck!

Mia415 · Mar 22, 2014

Awesome! I have the same passion as you, but specifically in maternal child health. So have you been looking for Public Health Nurse positions? There are sooo many different types of PHNs. I can tell you what kind of work I do if it will give you a better idea of a PHN. It was my first job as a new grad and I had all the same concerns that you had. But for me, I don't regret it one bit!! I love my job soo much! Sure I have some bad days, but most days I come home from work so happy and so inspired. I work in the Maternal Child Adolescent Health department for the nurse home visiting program and black infant health program. I do home visits to pregnant women and babies under 1 year old. I go about once a month and spend between 1-2 hours with the mom providing education, preventive health information, what's normal what's not, when to call MD, when to go to ER. A lot of info on development and actives to ensure good development (including doing actual lengthy developmental assessments 2 or 3 times on infants). I do basic medical assessments just through conversation to see if they are having any concerning symptoms. If they are having any symptoms I can give them advise on relief and prevention. Sometimes I have to call their doctor to report something more serious. Twice I advised someone to go the ER and both times they were admitted to the hospital (once for a pregnant woman with a big increase in blood pressure from 110/70 a month ago, 126/80 at the doctors office 2 days ago suddenly 160/86 at my home visit and also worsening headaches. Another time a baby that had intense vomiting 4 times in the last 4 hours. Baby was seen by Primary pediatrician and said "it's fine don't worry about it". I told her I hate to disagree with the doc but please go to ER). Anyways! Like 90-95 % of my clients are very healthy and it is all about prevention education. Some of my work is also kinda part social worker because I am often helping them with social factors like medi-cal issues, welfare issues, transportation issues, low income housing, and just directing then to community resources in general. So the only skills I'm doing is bold pressure and I weigh and measure the babies. But it's still very important I do a good basic "outpatient style" assessment. You are alone at the visit so you have constantly use your judgement to understand if there is anything concerning. You have to read your clients really well to see what information is pertinent to them and how to best explain it to them. Example, I had a 14 year old that I realized had no idea what words like placenta and cervix meant. So I took a lot of time explaining physiology to her. Some of cool meetings I get to go to is I sit on the county Fetal Infant Mortality Review Board, the county Breastfeeding coalition, and I do presentations to day care centers on SIDS/safe sleep. Anyways sorry for the super long comment, just wanted to give you an idea of one type of Public Health Nurse - maybe you are looking for something similar? Feel free to contact me for more info! And start searching county job website for PHN postings. Good luck! Community Health needs you!