PHN % patient contact vs. % administrative vs. % education

[Lemon Bars]

Hello, public health nurses! I am finishing up pre-requisites and hope to start a nursing program soon. The idea of working in the community doing preventative healthcare and health education is very appealing. Doing the administrative work of planning, organizing and running a tuberculosis monitoring program or similar program is much less appealing. How does it work when a new grad RN starts in public health? What percentage of a nurse's time is spent working face to face with patients, healthcare professionals or community members? What percentage is spent in a cubicle at a computer writing policies, analyzing data or speaking on the phone? Obviously any professional job these days is going to require some computer time charting or writing reports, but I would like to know if the time is 50/50 or if the trend is to leave most of the actual patient contact to primary care providers while public health nurses do more administrative work?

Also, I am a male. While I like kids, I'm not sure I'd be the top candidate for a position that involves speaking to new mothers about breastfeeding or women's health issues. I wonder about different areas in public health and if any would be a good fit for me? Thank you for any insight!

[klone, MSN, RN]

How much of your time is spent doing administrative stuff is entirely dependent upon what your job is. Typically, the greater amount of administrative stuff is done by supervisors and managers. As a new nurse, if you were to get a job in some facet of public health, the likelihood that the vast majority of your time will be spent with actual patient interaction is quite high.

There are LOTS of areas of public health outside women's/children's health. Just take a look at your county's health department to see all the different departments they have.