persimmonRN

Atypical work experience from your standard nurse. While I have a strong background in critical care, I also had almost a decade worth of grassroots community work in a volunteer health organization and also work exprience in a partnering community health organization. I'm a weirdo compared to other nurses with a very different background which isn't typical of PHN nurses at all. That made me stand out and I also come off as professional, friendly and down-to-earth. Being able to build partnerships and collaborate is 90% of my job, so someone extremely shy or not outgoing enough would not be a good fit.

I third getting a job at a health dept first before pursuing a MPH. Overall, unless you are going into epi or biostats, MPH do NOT typically pay well. To give you an idea, most new grads with a MPH are starting in the low 40K right out of school, IF they can find a job, as a nurse you'd have a leg up on finding a job, but those with pure MPH and no health certification licensure like a RN/RD and no real life work experience struggle more to find a job, even with a MPH. We just hired some new grad MPH, it took both of them 6-9 mo to find a job... and it's a LOW paying job ($17.xx/hr... they have told me that they often wonder if all the student loans are worth it). To give you an idea, I'm a RN, BSN and I am a bit of an oddball at our county HD. I am the only nurse who is NOT in nursing (nursing depts are: PHN, 2 divisions & public health clnic), I am in Health Promotions & Education doing health systems policy work, but it also includes policy and system work on environmental support too (increase in access to healthy foods & phyical activity, everything my team does is based on community collaboration and partnerships, which is very foreign to a lot of nurses, they just don't, "get" it- this is grant work). The DON had to fight to get my position designated as a RN position, there's never been a RN in HPE before in the history of our HD and compared to other counties who have the same grant as us, they are mostly MPH, but no nurses. I feel that as a nurse, I have a bit of a different POV on things, however I also am an oddball as a nurse, as I have a BS in dietetics as well, have taught nutrition classes on the community level, my community rotation during my BSN was odd, I did healthcare for the homeless, had zero school/occ/homehealth exp and worked much more on a community level in health as a volunteer than most nurses. I've thought on and off about getting my MPH. I believe it could help me to move into management, but as for helping me to do my job right now, I think that based on my clinical and community health (FYI, I have NEVER been a phn nurse, I'm like a total weirdo when it comes to nurses in public health, the other nurses in the HD do not have any understanding of what I do and have told me that my job sounds very daunting, since it is not routine or concretely defined work). My issue is that public health pays poorly and we are in a somewhat rural location. Yes, I could pursue a job with the state, but I'd have to commute about 1.5 hr each direction. If we lived in a metro area, I'd get my MPH w/o any hesitation, as I am very sure that with my track record, work experience and educational background that I would be a shoe-in for a state level job if I had a MPH behind my name as well. However, the fact that we are stuck in our rural location (due to my husband's job... which pays waaaay more than my job), I go back and forth on this everyday on whether it's worth the time, $, sacrifice to my husband and kids, etc.. The ROI in my situation is much harder due to being geographically, "stuck" in a region where opportunities don't really exist for those in public health. I would not jump into getting a MPH until you have at least tried a job IN public health. For your typical PHN nurse, a ADN/BSN will serve you just fine for 95% of the positions. You'd need a MSN/MPH, etc. more to move up the ranks into management. I technically could get my MPH and easily be the next person up for consideration for my dept head (my dept head will probably retire within the next 2-3 yrs), but that job somehow also encumbers the daunting tasks of being in charge of the strategic plan AND accredidation on top of managing several grants and a dept... I don't know if I want that or not. I'd never see my kids or husband again. My dept head works late every night and also comes in on weekends. I need some work/life balance.

I am an RN, BSN (who also has BS in dietetics previous to my RN) who has successfully transitioned from critical care to community health. I am currently a health educator at a county health department working on a chronic disease prevention grant and deal mostly with policy and system change. This is something I have always been interested in and I have balked over getting my MPH for over 10 years, since I could not figure out how to break into the field. However, now I can see how a MPH could help me in my career. My question to those who have pursued their MPH, b/c I am already in the field of community health and have already broken into it. Does it matter how, "good" (reputation) a MPH program is? Unfortunately, there are no local MPH programs to me, either I would have to drive 1.5-2 hrs to get to a program, or I can do the online version. My issue is that I am married with 3 elementary aged-children and working a full time job. So, I feel that this leaves me with the online option. After looking through the different CEPH accredited programs, some programs look like they are from, "for profit" type of online schools. Are those considered a no-no in the field? I have to admit that I am one who wonders what others think of online degrees and whether they are taken seriously by those in the field. My hope is that my MPH will be a stepping stone to our state department of health, in the future, but I don't know if I am making a bigger deal than need be about the reputation of a MPH program, if that makes any sense. I have no desire to ever return to the nursing as a clinician. Also, I'd also appreciate feedback on MPH concentration. Most likely I would do a, "general" concentration, however, I lean very much toward health education/promotion, but I also would like some management skills as well. I am not interested in focusing on epi or biostats, but acknowledge that some basic classes in those topics are necessary and useful. It is very possible that with my MPH that I could become a department head at our local health dept as well, although it is not really my end goal (our health dept administrators are awful to deal with and I see my dept head struggle with this). While I do not have the title of, "program manager" of my grant, I am the, "team lead." My dept head is our prgm manager, but other than the budget, she barely has a role in our grant. I fully admit that with grants, what I hate dealing with the most is the budget. So, that is one reason why I feel like it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing to have some mgmt classes, so I get the budget/finance courses to make myself stronger. My grant team and I feel strongly that at some time, our dept head will need to relent control and let one of us become the prgm mgr, as she has too much on her plate (which is why I am not particularly interested in stepping into her position should she retire). With my status as team lead, that woud most likely fall onto me. However, I would like to make sure that if I choose a concentation, that it is something that make me marketable in a more general sense, so I would be qualified to work at our state health department if an opportunity should arise.