What do you love about your job?

Barring public health emergencies, there are no overnights, no weekends, no 12 hour shifts. Bank hours drive some people batty but they work fine for me. The benefits I get working in a public health department (county level) are far better than anything my hospital nursing friends get. It could just be my health department, but the place I work for really values professional development and staff education and pays for my attendance at several conferences. I am encouraged to do studies and present this work at conferences.

That's just the workplace, though. I really value getting to do a good deal of patient education within the clinic setting and helping people in need connect with local resources to meet their needs. Empowering young people to understand how their bodies work, normalize sexuality in a positive way, and to take charge of their health is really rewarding. I also appreciate getting to go out and engage with my community by participating in community partnerships by bringing a nursing perspective to things like safe schools, poverty reduction programs, engaging at-risk youth, affordable housing, sex worker outreach partnerships, and most recently sexual assault prevention at a local college. Part of my position is also working with social media to do health education and promotion, so that's a fun adventure where I get to combine my theatre background with nursing skills by writing scripts and filming short videos on educational topics. I use the same skills in developing community presentations for the outreach work I do that either promotes health department programs or educates an audience on a topic, generally sexual health related because I work in family planning primarily.

I love the variety in my work. I can't imagine a position outside of public health where I would get to do all these cool things and get paid for it.

OP: I

In all deference to your marked joie de vivre regarding nursing, I must tell you that I find the words "love" and "job" found in the same sentence thread strangely incongruent.

But since you are so enthusiastic at this point about nursing, and that's good, I will not rain on your parade except to say the 3 things I love the most about nursing are (1) lunch (2) payday and (3) going home, unencumbered, without the nurse manager saying "see me in the office before you leave today, would ja?"

I love public health nursing for these reasons:

1) I have time - usually all the time I want/need, uninterrupted - to actually provide comprehensive education to my patients...a very stark contrast to my hospital experience. I can use my knowledge and skills to make a difference and prevent disease.

2) At least where I work, I trust and believe in our leadership. I'm not being worked to death to make a few more bucks for a hospital CEO. From the front line to our chief medical officer, we're all here because we believe in serving our community, and it shows.

3) Speaking of which....the people, my coworkers, are the best!

4) Opportunities to teach and learn - I'm actively encouraged to attend talks, view webinars, read articles on work time.

Good luck as you finish your program!