Transition to community/public health

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Hi AllNurses community,

I have been an RN for 2 years now, 1 year on a med surg floor, 1 year (and current unit) in the PACU. I had hoped the switch from med surg to PACU would leave me more fulfilled with my work, however I find myself often burned out and exhausted at the end of the day. Upon further reflection, I realized while I was in nursing school I had anticipated going into community/public health. I had decided to initially take a med surg position to get that "experience" under my belt (and I have learned an exceeding amount).

However, at this point I am trying to transition to community health, without much luck. I scour for positions (there seem to be very few in my state, Illinois), and I don't have any experience (besides a good community/home health clinical in nursing school). I have a BSN, but unfortunately my resume only has inpatient experience on it.

So my question is: what would you recommend to gain some community health experience? I've thought of offer to volunteer with my local community health agency (if they would allow that), join the medical reserve corps, do several public health CEUs, etc. Any ideas or tips to break into this nursing field? Whenever I see PH/community health job postings, I get excited at the duties and expectations (performing community assessments, creating education, community initiatives, etc).

Thank you for your time and thoughts!

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Specializes in Dialysis.

Many agencies in IN love Home Health nurses, because you've (hopefully) had 1 year acute experience, and have had experience working on your own without a lot of resources immediately available, and you have to be able to educate beyond current, observable needs. That's how I got in, back when I did it. I loved it, but left because the pay was horribly low

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Specializes in Ortho-trauma 2 yrs; Med-tele 1 yr; STD 1 yr.

I work for my local health department and like you, I had a hard time initially finding PHN positions. I just kept searching Indeed till I found something. Maybe you might need to relocate. The rural areas are hurting for nurses so there could be more opportunities there. Contact the nurse recruiters for the United States Public Health Service - they might have some leads

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