Public Health Certification?

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I am hoping someone can help me. I am currently halfway through my RN to BSN program online and unfortunately I just found out I will not be receiving my public health certificate with my program.

I live in California, does anyone know of a school that will let you get just the PH certification if you are not doing their BSN program? I haven't been able to find one.

Thank you!

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

What do you mean, you won't receive it? I'm not a California RN, but my understanding is that this is not something that is bestowed by the school, but rather something you apply for through the California BON after completing your BSN program.

Are you saying that your school does not require a public health practicum? What program is this?

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Some BSN programs offer the public health certificate program within their program. I just found out mine does not, which means I cannot apply through the CA State Board. You have to have 90 public health clinical hours as part of the BSN program in order to apply for your certificate. The school that I chose online does not offer it, which I just found out. I have been looking at schools that offer it and I can only see where they offer it as part of their BSN program, not as something separate. I need to find a school that will let me know the class/clinical hours for public health.

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I am currently enrolled at Grand Canyon University btw. I have friends enrolled at University of Phoenix and some of the state colleges in CA and they will all be eligible to apply PH cert. when they are finished because they will have the hours.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

Wow, that sucks. I know of no schools that allow someone to take one class of a nursing program.

That doesn't help you, but hopefully others here will learn from your mistake and make sure they do their due diligence when shopping for a nursing program, particularly an online, for-profit program.

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Yes, I am extremely upset at myself for making that mistake because in my head that is why I chose this program lol! I looked at so many programs and was also looking into their MSN program, which is why I think i got confused, because some programs offered and some didn't and their MSN program offers it. It's not like me to make that mistake, especially since I was specifically asking that question, but I was "rushing" a bit because I needed to find a job stat after nursing school and I could not get hired until I was actually enrolled in a program so I wanted to start a program as soon as I could. I am surprised because Grand Canyon has a great reputation, it's an actual University that has been around 50+ years, but I believe they dropped the ball on this one. Hoping someone else has a better answer - thanks for your reply.

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Can you do an independent study through Grand Canyon and see if any health departments are willing to work with you to fulfill experience requirements? It may be above and beyond what you need to graduate but it may give you what you need to sit for the certifying exam.

Grad students set up their own clinicals all the time so it might be worth looking into.

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I am currently an RN to BSN student with GCU and live in California. I am also interested in applying for the Public Health Nurse (PHN) certification through the BRN.

NRS-427VN (Concepts in Community and Public Health) should count as coursework towards the PHN certificate. You need to do the 7-hour course on abuse detection and reporting and 90 clinical hours under a public health nurse.

I got all this information from the CA BRN website and contacted my local county public health nurse administration to see if they can take me in and I would do 90 clinical hours under a PHN then just get a certified letter that I did 90 hours under a PHN. This is my plan from here... I hope the BRN approves it.

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CSU Dominquez Hills offers the Public Health Certification without obtaining the BSN. Check out website and it will give all the requirements.

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kezzak1 Did you have any luck with Public Health Certification? I also graduated from GCU and was under the impression I would be eligible for this. Did you call the board and ask questions?

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Nope. Haven’t found anything very frustrating. Dominguez Hills no longer offers it as stand alone class only as part of BSN. Extremely frustrating that they screwed up on this.

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To sleepy in California: I took that course the clinical public health hours were not an option for me I spoke with multiple people at the school you do not get your PHN with the BSN program at GCU. I’m sorry I never saw your post from a year ago - if you have found out otherwise please let me know - thanks for the info!

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