Reference no: EM133519886
Public health nurses (PHN) take their work to the people, providing care and education in homes, workplaces, schools, community centers and many other places.
In the February 15, 2022 edition of the New York Times, a headline read, 'Nurses Have Finally Learned What They're Worth'. The article goes on to say " The scramble for bedside nurses is tied to everything from how we run our hospitals to the way we value the work of caring for others to our understanding of public health and medicine. And if our health care system has faltered under the weight of the pandemic, it will need hundreds of thousands more nurses to build itself back up." And these are bedside nurses, not PHNs
The public health system in the United States was crumbling under the weight of too little funding well before the present crisis caused by COVID: public health nurses who ran TB clinics programs for disabled children, cared for people with chronic conditions and administered immunization, just to name a few were laid off or allowed to retire: no one replaced these nurses. The system that is responsible for caring for the health of populations is in need of a reboot.
Salaries for PHNs could not compete with those offered in the health care industry and some nurses who thought about public/population health nursing as a career, chose the hospital when they saw their school debt payment.
The future of public health nursing is in question as the PHN workforce shrinks and ages, educational programs for advanced knowledge and training in public /population health have slowly disappeared, and the advanced clinical nurse specialist certification has been retired.
To remain viable and visible to those we care for, public health nurses as a collective must take credit for their work and contributions to the health of their communities. Public Health Nurse-leaders are needed.
QUESTIONS for DISCUSSION
1. Do you agree with the following statement: nurses should lead a new movement for the accurate assessment of unmet social needs as they relate to health"? (Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, retrieved 6/10/2022)
2. Does a nurse leader in public health nursing look different than a nurse leader in other spheres of nursing, such as clinical/bedside nursing or academic nursing?
3. What has to change in public health/population health to make it a viable career choice for nurses?