public health nursing after 3 months of hospital experience?

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Hi,

Nursing is my 2nd degree (previous BA in psychology) and I entered nursing because I was interested in community health and public health. However, after graduating (in December), I went to work in a med/surg unit because I thought it would be good to gain experience.

The problem is, I am miserable! I hate the acute care setting, the continuous stress, and the understaffing. I am about to get off orientation at the end of the month but I already KNOW that hospital nursing is not for me.

I feel guilty about leaving after the time they invested in me to orient but I really hate it! I also feel like a failure for not being able to succeed in this job... I am 24 and still have not held a real job (graduated with my BA, then went straight to a 2nd degree in nursing program).

I loved my community health rotation and want to work in public health. Would I be hired after only 3 months of hospital experience?

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we have some things in common. for me too, nursing was a second degree. i always wanted to do public health nursing, too. bedside nursing is not my favorite. in fact, i just quit my job on the floor after 9 months and got a job at the local health department (see my post leaving the floor after 9 months in the first year in nursing thread for more info.)

i would suggest trying to stick it out on the floor for a little longer to get some experience on your own after orientation. i don't know if you want to work for the health department or not, but sometimes they do hire people with little to no experience on the floor, provided you're interested in doing something in the clinic setting and not home health or school nursing. a lot of times they're looking for someone with basic nursing skills because you definitely won't be doing the type of stuff you do at the bedside. do some research and find out what they're looking for.

if you're able to, i would definitely suggest volunteering at the place you might be interested in working. you get to learn a lot, develop public health experience, and network with individuals in the field. that will help you get a foot in the door more than anything else and i think that helped me a lot considering i don't have at least a year's experience on the floor. public health is my passion and i volunteered on my days off from the hospital because i love it so. if that's not possible take some ce courses related to public health or epidemiology. i'm currently working on my msn in public health nursing as well. i hope this helps. good luck in whatever you decide!

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Thank you so much for your reply! I didn't realize public health departments took in volunteers ... did you volunteer as a nurse (doing clinical kind of things) or more administrative?

I am going to try to stay as long as possible but I really dread it so much. Also, I have the option of doing my Masters in Community Health Nursing or doing my Master's in Public Health (majoring in Health Education) this coming fall and I will have to move out of state for either way. So, I am thinking that if I quit my current job now, I can just move a little bit earlier and find a job in LTC or a less stressful setting, although I don't know if that would be good experience for public health.

Also, how did you come to choose the masters in public health nursing over an MPH? I am having a tough time deciding which one I want to do and am not sure which would be more practical ...

thank you again for sharing your story! It makes me feel hopeful that I don't have to work in the hospital for too much longer.

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yes, the public health departments in my area welcome interns and volunteers. as an intern, i was not a nurse. i wasn't even a nursing student at that point. i was interning there as part of my first degree in health services management. i worked with the visiting nurses during that time and loved the experience so much i decided to go to nursing school after graduation.

my volunteer work is mostly administrative in the sense that i work in the offices and don't have physical contact with the clients i work with. i speak with them over the phone and do follow-up evaluations, case management type stuff. of course when i became an rn myself it was an added plus and i was asked to take on more responsibility where i could use my nursing skills. there are also positions available where they need volunteers in the clinic too.

ideally, i would love to get an msn/mph dual degree, but those programs are more expensive and take a little longer to complete than going for just one masters degree. my bachelor's program was expensive since i went to a private college, so i don't want to take on any more debt. right now i'm attending a good school that's very affordable, and one that i can pay for without taking out any loans. i felt that i could do more with the msn instead of the mph. i aslo felt like it would help more in terms of marketability and experience as a nurse in public health considering i don't have a lot of floor experience. maybe i will go for the mph later if i decide not to get my doctorate. i have no interest in a doctorate in nursing though. if i do go that route it will be a drph or a phd in medical sociology.

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Hi TMarie,

Thanks for sharing your experiences. What opportunities would a nurse with a MSN have vs. MPH? Could you give me some ideas of positions that would be held by both? I am considering doing a MSN/MPH dual degree program, but I am having difficulty deciding if this is a good route to take.

Thank you!

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hi tmarie,

thanks for sharing your experiences. what opportunities would a nurse with a msn have vs. mph? could you give me some ideas of positions that would be held by both? i am considering doing a msn/mph dual degree program, but i am having difficulty deciding if this is a good route to take.

thank you!

if you're trying to stay mostly on the nursing side of public health, an msn might be better. if you want to teach nursing, most colleges and universities want you to have at least a masters, but a lot of them require that the masters be in nursing. you could probably also teach in a strictly public health program with an msn too, as long as the degree has a public health focus. if you want to become a senior public health nurse at the supervisory level you will need a masters in nursing, but in some instances an mph will be ok, too. if you want to have more diversity in public health an mph might be good because you learn about environmental health and infection control as well. a lot of the msn programs have little, if any, focus on these areas. if you're undecided about getting the doctorate in nursing or public health you might want to go for the msn degree if you don't go for the dual degree. with an msn in nursing you can still get into a drph program, but with an mph it may be very hard to get into a phd or dnp program in nursing without a masters in nursing. a lot of the open public health positions in my state are either looking for a public health nurse or environmental health specialist. majority of the openings are for public health nurses though. hope this helps.

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