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Public Health Nurse - Career Profile |
Career OverviewPublic health is an exceptionally broad field. Public health organizations employ a wealth of medical and non-medical professionals to promote their interests; to develop and implement specific programs. They also hire trained and registered nurses to provide a range of general care to the public.
A Public Health Nurse is a registered nurse with special training in community health whose role is typically to assist families and individuals address health concerns, and parenting and lifestyle issues that affect them. The public health nurse is required to have extensive knowledge of community resources as a means of assisting families and individuals to improve there general health.
Typically, public health nurses have a knowledge of various specialist areas of medicine, including epidemiology, demographics, biometrics, environmental health, community structure and organization, community development, management, program evaluation, policy development, and case management.
They may also engage in basic research projects that are relevant to community health care, exploring ways of providing cost-effective care to people of all ages, which is also effective and efficient at promoting the health of an entire community.
They also play a very key role in educating the general community about basic health care, including preventative care, such as proper hygiene and proper nutrition.
Public health nurses may work closely with clinics or health community centers, general physicians and specialists to facilitate the best possible patient care.
Most public health nurses are currently employed by corporate entities to provide outreach programs and health care to employees. They may work for corporate offices, department stores, shopping malls, factories, mills, health insurance companies, and telephone triage centers.
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Career RequirementsTo become a public health care nurse an individual needs a current license to practice as registered nurse in the United States. It is also generally preferred for candidates to have at least a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing before entering a training program, although associates degrees are sometimes accepted.
The American Nurses Credentialing Center awards licenses to qualified public health nurses and is the official source for more information about finding an accredited training course in public health nursing. Contact information features below.
American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
P.O. Box 12846,
Austin, TX 78711
www.aanp.org
American Nurses Credentialing Center
600 Maryland Ave., SW, Suite 100 West
Washington, D.C. 20024-2571
(800) 284-2378
American Nurses' Association
8518 Georgia Ave.,
Ste. 400,
Silver Spring, MD 20910
www.nursingworld.org
National League for Nursing
61 Broadway
New York, NY 10006
www.nln.org
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Job OutlookIn the next decade, nursing will be one of the top 10 fastest growing professions in the United States according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Health care facilities will be looking to cut back on general costs so clinical nurse specialists may become the preferred alternative to more specialized medical professionals.
The future looks bright in the nursing field, with the number of jobs for registered nurses expected to increase at a rate far greater than that of most other jobs in the next couple of years.
Over the next decade or so, the nursing profession is expected to change as well. Nearly one out of every eight Americans is over 65 years of age and the size of the elderly population looks set to double by 2050, according to the US Census Bureau. Nurses specializing in care of the elderly will be in particular demand.
Hospitals are constantly downsizing, cutting back on the number of general staff, and reducing the time of patients' stay as well, so at home patient care is likely to be the standard practice for nurses in the not too distant future. At least, caring for patients outside of hospital settings will become the norm; public health nurses may find their role expanding as communities are served from their places of work.
There has also been some discussion about dividing the field of nursing into professional nurses and technical nurses. This will distinguish between those who have four-year degrees and those who have associate degrees. Yet, as the field develops, there will certainly be increased opportunity for public health nurses to demonstrate leadership and to influence the direction of nursing at all levels.
Trends suggest that the education role of public health nurses will become increasingly important, too. As patients spend less time in hospital, patient education will become an increasingly crucial part of the overall patient experience. Likewise, as more and more nursing and non-nursing staff members are hired by hospitals, clinics, and other health care establishments, the skills of public health nurses as educators will become yet more crucial.
The role of public health nurses is and will remain a vital ingredient to ensure a positive experience for patients and staff.
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Career TrackPublic health nurses have credentials that allow them to take on a number of specialist roles in the field of medicine within the scope of their daily work.
Increasingly they may find that they are involved in administrative task rather than daily care of patients, but the precise career focus remains a career choice for the individual. They can choose to work day-to-day with patients, practicing general medicine, or they can choose to serve as administrators and policy-makers in the pubic health field.
The career track of every public health nurse varies considerably. However, the education and training of public health nurses prepares them well for a career track in a variety of areas and in a variety of capacities, from patient care to high-level public health care administration.
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CompensationAlthough compensation for public health nurses varies considerably, depending on the type of work that they do and where they work, the annual pay is generally equal to or above that of a registered nurse.
- Registered nurse: $40,000 to $65,000
- Emergency room nurse: $45,000 to $70,000
- Licensed practical nurse: $35,000 to $45,000
- Nurse practitioner: $60,000 to $125,000
- Nurse supervisor: $55,000 to $85,000
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