PHN Poorly defined and understood role

[wonderbee, BSN, RN]

Has anyone found that your role as a public health nurse is a blurry one? Poorly understood by other non-nurses? In short, have you run into flack just performing the basics because non-nurse staff feel threatened?

I'm the only nurse in my program so there is no one to compare notes with. Are there similar experiences out there?

[noreenl]

Please by all means share your experiences!! I am a school nurse and I know both our jobs would be easier with peds cases if we connected. tell me how I can facilitate this for better patient care!

[wonderbee, BSN, RN]

It would be safe to say that I'm new to public health (less than a year) in a newly created position working for WIC. The primarily nutrition staff have a limited focus. Mine is broader. For example, as I do hemoglobin testing, part of my patient education is necessarily about iron which does overlap with nutrition. While I see it as a nursing function to educate about everything within my scope, especially when asked, the nutrition staff (unlicensed) feels it to be their responsibility alone. They would be happy if all I do is fill out forms and test for hemoglobin and keep my mouth shut. I'm fighting for the integrity of my profession, as well as for optimal outcomes among the population we all serve. It's extremely frustrating. Very poorly defined role. I'm curious if other nurses experience this. I realize that I may be kind of unique in that I'm only one nurse in a large department of non-nurses, but what I do here will have an effect on whoever follows in my footsteps when I retire and hopefully the public health.