SiwanRN

You may have luck just contacting your local schools of nursing to see if you can volunteer for research experience.

Hm.. Are you a member of your state's public health association, or the American Public Health Association? If you are the only nurse and there is not another nurse (even one perhaps at the 3 county consortium) you can ask these questions, likely there will be a mechanism in your state association (or if you have a state public health nurse association, even better) where you can connect with peers who can hopefully help provide you with advice. Public health is so different in every state, advice from even a neighboring state might not be the way things are done at all in your area. If you are a member of APHA, there is definitely help to be found in the public health nursing section. https://www.apha.org/apha-communities/member-sections/public-health-nursing Good luck in your new role!

I have no info on any midwifery education programs on whether or not they teach it, but I would encourage any student nurse (or student nurse midwife or student nurse practitioner) who is interested in learning more about abortion care to look at the Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health Abortion Care Elective to see if you can get it delivered on your campus. edit to add link: http://nsrh.org/Abortion-Care-Education-(ACE)

If so it is not a rumor I have heard. Where is your source?

Hi Capybara123! You can work with sexual health in a public health capacity. Many local county or regional health departments offer STD testing and treatment services, and nurses usually work within or manage those programs. Depending where you are, the local health department may also do birth control services through Title X funding, or more robust HIV testing, referral, or treatment as well. This is basically the core of my job function, along with immunizations, communicable disease control, and community engagement. Feel free to message me if you'd like to continue the conversation.

I wanted to be certified in public health nursing with the APHN-BC credential, but the ANCC retired it before I was eligible to apply. There is no other nursing-specific public health certification credential at this time and nor does ANCC seem to have any intention of creating one, so I don't know that I'll ever get to know how having the certification would feel. #StillBitter

I am finishing my MPH this month!

As a nurse who works at a local health department and often sees these kiddos with letters from their school nurses for immunization compliance... THANK YOU for all the amazing work you do to help keep your school populations safe from vaccine preventable diseases. You rock!

As an active member of a national public health nursing professional organization, I can tell you there is plenty being done by nurses in all areas of healthcare about climate change and healthy environments! More education in terms of a DNP/PhD is certainly something you'll have to make your own decisions on to see if it works for your life, but in the meantime, I would encourage you to think about joining the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments! It's free to join and you get access to regular conference calls, work groups around various topics (climate change, food, safer chemicals, research, practice, policy, etc), ideas for taking actions in your own community with regards to health policy/environmental policy, and they have a free peer-reviewed textbook in electronic format on environmental health in nursing. I really can't say enough good things about ANHE. Did I mention they have free CEs too? Feel free to poke around their website here: ANHE - Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

I am an aspiring MSF applicant as well, so I am hoping some others will jump in to provide us with answers to your questions.

Agree with above - as a suggestion, you might try calling your local public health department and let the receptionist know you are a nursing student with an assignment who would like to speak with a public health nurse. I work at a public health department and we get at least three calls like this a semester. We're happy to do it, and that would be more in line with the spirit of your assignment.

If you are working with children, it can help to give them some choice in the matter. They are getting the vaccine regardless, but letting them decide if they want to sit on their parent's lap or up on the exam table and which shoulder you use helps ease their anxiety some, I have found. It also helps to ask them to demonstrate how they blow out birthday candles, then practice together on the count of three, then when you give the shot to count to 3 and to poke on 3 as they are blowing out the pretend candles. I have also found that pinching the deltoid just a little (not to raise the muscle, but to provide a different sensation) helps them to feel my grip more than the needle going in. Using these techniques helps decrease discomfort for the children I immunize quite a bit. They also work with needlephobic teens and adults.

I think it would probably just be like a regular corrections nursing job then, but not having worked at such a place, I couldn't say. I'd encourage you to also reach out to the corrections nursing forum too.

Are you referring to a US Public Health Services Commissioned Corps posting in a correctional facility, or a job description via a county/local jurisdiction that is for a nurse in a corrections facility and has 'public health nurse' in the job title? I can't imagine that either of the above scenarios would be terribly different except the Commissioned Corps position would have the additional hoops to jump through that any federal employment might have.

I don't have much to add to the NP side of things since I am not one, but this recent case out of California where RNs were doing laser hair removal under the chirpractor's supervision rather than a physician supervision would sure make me leery of wanting to work with one in a professional capacity. San Francisco Bay Area Couple Charged with Practicing Medicine Without a License | The DOI Page

From what I understand in my participation in a national public health nursing professional organization, when they switched it to portfolio review back in .. 2016? The ANCC had less than 200 applicants per year and thus decided to retire it since there wasn't high enough demand. To which I read between the lines: they did not get enough money. It's very frustrating because I am in graduate school now because I wanted the credential. The graduate school degree will still be worth having but not having an option for professional board certification in my specialty anymore limits my ability to get better pay in some places that I want to work after graduate school. I know other nurses who wanted the APHN-BC credential have instead sat for the CPH (certified in public health) exam that is open to anyone who completed an MPH, but it is not nursing specific and thus not the same.

CoolKidsRN has great advice. In addition to above, sometimes it may help to have the 11 year old sitting up on the exam table, and then the parent standing in front of them to corral their legs (I dislike being kicked) and either bear hug or otherwise hold their arms or hands to keep the arms from jerking around or a sudden hand swiping up where I am about to inject a vaccine. Meanwhile, I stand to the side of the exam table on the side I am giving the shot in and do my thing as quickly as it is safe to do. Having the exam table with the back of the table raised so it is more like a chair is very useful if you do it this way. As another distraction technique, you can also ask them to exhale like they are blowing out birthday candles as you give the shot. Or engage them in conversation about other topics. Each kid is different, you have to suss out what will work best in each individual scenario. However, ultimately, some 11 year olds still hulk out and go absolutely bonkers and if their parents will not/cannot safely restrain them for you to give the injection (note - where I work has a policy against nurses doing any restraining, parents must do it) then you may just have to have them reschedule for another day. Safety first, and also I don't really want to end up in court being asked how it is I stuck a kid in the hand instead of their deltoid.

That's what I hear from senior nursing students that I precept.

Good luck in your interview! What kind of writing sample are they looking for? The nurses in my health department whose roles touch on emergency preparedness often have to do technical writing around things like the health department's protocols for emergencies or standing orders (epinephrine administration post- anaphylactic reaction to a vaccine allergy, for example). They also are sometimes involved in writing for the public, such as brochures that describe what to pack in an emergency kit. Once in awhile these nurses will also have to do a policy analysis to look at national guidelines/requirements and see how our health department protocols stack up and write recommendations for changes. Once you figure out what kind of writing they are looking for, that will help you determine what you should send. Let us know how your interview goes!

I wanted to get the Advanced Public Health Nurse - Board Certified (APHN-BC) certification, but they retired it before I could finish graduate school and be eligible. So I have nothing. I'll look at other public health certifications (CPH, CHES) in time, but now there are no nursing-specific ones that exist to get anymore, which is sad.

I don't really have advice for how it is done for RNs, but I know historically at the health department where I work that public health nurses did do well child checks in the public health clinic. In talking with one of my senior colleagues who was there in those days, usually it just involved a physical assessment, asking parents about milestones (roll over by X months, sit up by X months, etc), providing anticipatory guidance on common things (feeding, sleep schedules, etc), and then the vaccinations that were due at the appropriate intervals. If the nurse identified something out of the ordinary, then he or she would help get a referral to one of the local safety net clinics that saw indigent folks and families without insurance. They definitely did not do sick child appointments though, and if kids were sick that day for the well-child visit then they would be referred out.

It's great that you know you are interested in public health already while you are still in school! It was the same way for me - I knew that I would never be happy working in a hospital. I live in the United States, so I can't really comment as to whether a public health department in Canada would hire a new graduate nurse, or your prospects for nurse practitioner school after having only public health nursing experience. I was hired in public health as a new grad, if that helps you to know at all. I hope you can get the information you are looking for here on this board, but since your questions pertain to Canada, it might also be beneficial to post them on the Canada forum as well: https://allnurses.com/nursing-in-canada/ Good luck!

Oh I have an answer for this one! Join your local Medical Reserve Corps unit! They will *~*love*~* that you have HAM radio skills. Find your local chapter here: MRC Also, more specific to HAM radio, check out ARES: ARES

Here's some public health related ideas: Volunteer for Boulder County Public Health - Boulder County Mental Health Partners - Get Involved The Works Program - Boulder County Volunteer - Boulder County AIDS Project I believe Klone posted about Boulder Community Hospital already in your other thread. Good luck!

I worked in a public health clinic, but I can relate to the ouch in the wallet - the hours are great, but the pay can be meh, especially since I was a new grad when I started. I picked up float shifts for an outpatient gyn surgery center to help with my income and kept the second job for about 4 years until my pay at the public health clinic got better. I don't have kids, so I can't speak to that question. My second job was on Saturdays only, but I got to pick which Saturdays I wanted since the centers were always understaffed (they couldn't assign us, it was voluntary prn only). It was a nice way to pick up extra income for savings or vacations or when I had unexpected costs, but it definitely made me tired to work a M-F clinic job and then pick up a Saturday shift on top of that. I don't miss being that busy.