Nursing Careers in Public Health

As a public health nursing professional, you are called on to provide access to health care to many who may not normally be able to afford medical services. Your patients include poor and uninsured populations from culturally and economically diverse backgrounds.

A public health nurse strives to promote prevention over treatment. By correcting poor health practices and maintaining a safe home or work environment, patients lower risks to their health and require fewer visits to health care facilities. The goal of a public health nursing career is to educate patients through community-based intervention programs, which identify and correct multiple health issues:

• Improper diet
• Infectious and sexually transmitted diseases
• Social violence
• Substance abuse
• Teen pregnancy

Your nursing career in public health can lead to several different working environments, including a patient's home, community center and workplace, to provide medical assistance or perform inspections. Opportunities to use your nursing degree can be found in facilities that treat patients 24 hours a day, but employment for a school or business usually provides a stable work schedule within their hours of operation.

Emergency response positions are available with the federal government in teams leading sanitary relief efforts for the survivors of disasters. Large-scale disasters require emergency plans, created by public health nurses, to be in place beforehand to minimize possible dangers and aid in the safe evacuation and housing of victims, if necessary.

The Health Sciences Center for Global Health (HSCGH) at The Ohio State University (OSU) is a collaborative program among the OSU Colleges of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Optometry, Pharmacy, Public Health, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and Veterinary Medicine. The HSCGH is led jointly by the Colleges of Medicine (COM) and Public...

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