Working at health dept with no ped experience?

[Weary1]

I am new to this site - another nurse suggested I come here and post to get feedback.

I am interested in working in a county health department. I have plenty of adult health experience but I do not have ANY mother/baby or peds experience. Zero. Not even personal experience...I had pregnancy/mother/baby/peds in nursing school but that was a long time ago and short term.

One nurse who works at a different health department said I don't need any, another nurse who use to work in community health said it would be better if I had at least some because children are usually 50% of what a health department focuses on (and pregnancy).

What do those of you who work in public health/health departments think? Would it be better if I gained some experience in these areas before attempting this?

Thank you.

[guest464345]

In our department, there are quite a few PHN jobs that are family/peds focused (Nurse Family Partnership, for instance) - but also quite a few that are focused on adults (TB clinic, healthcare for homeless, STD clinic). You can probably focus your job search according to your experience. I never worked in peds, but on the occasions when a peds question arises in my job it's easy to find resources (including my wonderful coworkers)!

[dearohdear]

Hi Weary1,

I was very much in the same boat as you are about a year ago, so I thought I'd share my story. I was working in adult acute general med for 2 years before I realized that I wanted to work in preventative care, and started to pursue my dream of working in public health. I got much of the same advice from everyone that I needed to have peds/maternal experience, which was a problem for me. It is true, most managers look for acute maternal/peds experience, especially if you are applying for positions that include roles with postpartum, well child, school health or generalist responsibilities (keep in mind that public health includes a range of roles just like all of nursing, like the previous comment pointed out). That being said, it isn't impossible to break into the field without that clinical experience. For me, I knew that was a weak spot in my resume, so after making cold calls to several public health offices, one kindly manager took the time to sit down with me and talk about how I could get the experience I needed. She gave me info for several online courses, workshops and seminars that would help get me the background knowledge that I needed (ex. things like one-day pediatric information workshops, and immunization competency modules). I also took advantage of several volunteer opportunities in my current work at the hospital that gave me public health related experience - I volunteered to organize a flu shot campaign for my fellow coworkers on my unit. In my interviews, I always was sure to include experiences that were outside of nursing as well, things like working with children during my summer jobs through university, and travel experiences. These little things started add up to build up what I needed in my resume, and it worked. A couple months later I was offered a casual position at a local community health centre, and I am now working full time in a permanent position in our Well Child Clinic.

Point of the story being, focus on what skills you DO bring to the table and never underestimate the power of those small experiences. You don't necessarily need to have a previous 2 years working in acute peds, NICU, or L&D in order to work with families in the community. It would inform your practice, but it's not a deal-breaker.