Thinking about public health nursing

Start looking at county and state department of public health website job postings. In the county, you usually serve the entire community, one patient at a time. State governments may have positions focused on entire populations. You may also want to look into nonprofits but I am weary of them, as some of them have shady practices.

Public Health Nursing has endless opportunities for working with underserved populations. Some questions you may want to ask yourself is what kind of role would you like to work in? What specific underserved population are you passionate about? Do you see yourself one day working as a program director working to change major health policies on a county, state, or national level? Do you want to be a health educator or work in promoting preventative health? If some of those options are what you had in mind, then maybe consider an MPH. For me personally, I decided I will always want to provide direct patient care in a one on one setting. My passion is underserved children, infants, and women. As much as I am interested in various leadership roles, but I couldn't ever imagine sitting at a desk all day and working on policy/budget paperwork - even though those roles can have a profound and meaningful impact on the community health policies as a whole. I would say like the other post, look at county public health nursing positions, and learn more about what positions are available. As you gain experience in the community health setting, no matter what role, you will learn more about all the vast opportunities there are for you. Remember every state and every county tends to have very different public health systems.

So I have decided an MPH is not for me, although I am interested in an MSN in Public Health maybe. Not sure what the future holds for me after that :) Right now I am working as a PHN for a county Maternal Child Adolescent Health department in a Nurse Home Visiting Program, visiting pregos and babies under 1 yr old - they are some of the most low income and low education families in our county. At my home visits, I provide a minimal assessment to identify any acute health concerns or monitor the status of a ongoing high risk condition, provide case management service, provide referrals to health services and community resources, call their MD if I have concerns... but mostly I provide a lot of preventive health education, and educations on all topics relevant to pregnancy, and raising an infant/young child. I work with families in extreme poverty, undocumented immigrants, recovering drug abusers, families with an active child protective services case, women choosing to stay in a domestic violence relationship, etc. ANyways, thats a short description of what I do! If you are interested in more interactions with the public in a nursing capacity, there is also many many positions in working with other populations.

In conclusion, try to think about more specific in what you want your daily routine at work to be, and start by looking at county PHN positions for some clarity! Good luck and thank you for having a passion about serving the community!

I'm a recently graduated RN/BSN. I'm getting my hospital experience now, but I know I don't want to do that my entire life. I plan on eventually becoming a nurse practitioner with a DNP. I'm really looking forward to advancing my education because I work at a university hospital and get grad school tuition waivers through them. My ideal career would involve working with disadvantaged and underserved populations out in the community, but I'm not sure exactly how to go about doing that through nursing. I definitely want to be a nurse, but after some research it seems like I'd be better off getting my master's in public health in order to best equip myself for helping entire populations of people. Should I bother with the DNP if I'm not looking to do advanced practice in a clinical setting? Is there a place/demand for nurse practitioners in public health nursing? Would having a degree in public health as well help me in any way?

I did my Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology and then finished nursing school afterwards. I like the RN/MPH combo because I was able to combine clinical skills with my background in public health, which provides for a unique perspective on health-related phenomena. My interests are in applied epidemiology/research, so I am still able to do that with a nursing degree too. I'm glad I combined the nursing with public health, but having the advanced nursing degree is also valuable as well; it really depends on your interests on the direction you should go. Either way, you'll have plenty of options!

I would also suggest if you're interested in working with underserved populations to look into applying for the HRSA Nurse CORP Scholarship Program (NURSE Corps Scholarship Program). This scholarship pays 100% of nursing school education, fees... Plus you get a monthly stipend. However, Scholarship recipients must commit 2 years of service to working in a medically underserved area. This program is worth looking into if you decided to go the NP or DNP route because your education will be completely paid for. I'm an alumni of this scholarship program and it has been a huge help for me.

joint the USPHS Commissioned Corps. It will a fast way to do what you want to do. Really competitive and really hard to get in, but it's worth it.