9/12/17
Laura Anderson
Nursing Success Seminar Public Health Nurse
Lynelle Phillips, a Public Health Nurse here at Mizzou, explains to my peers and I that in Public Health, the patient is not the individual, it is the community. For example, if a worker at a restaurant has a contagious illness, the procedure is to require the worker to stop working and receive medical care for the infectious disease. Being out of work lasts until the worker is free of contagion. The nurse would also be finding out if any customers were affected by the infected worker. Same with contacts of active TB patients, those with gonorrhea, syphilis, and other STD's. A Public Health Nurse might be involved in community groups that deal …show more content…
They identify common health problems in the community while treating patients, and work to create intervention plans to correct or prevent the health and safety issues they discover. 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 similar to; improper diet, infectious and sexually transmitted diseases, social violence, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and many more. A nurse 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. 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 …show more content…
In current events, Hurricane Harvey and Irma are in extreme needs of Public Health Nurses. Lynelle Phillips brings the discussion of how important Public Health Nurses are in these situations, and I never realized that they are extremely important. In these situations, the public never thinks about the diseases and infections that can spread. The water from the hurricane can contain so many different bacterias and infectious diseases. People are just trying to survive and they forget to take care of their hygiene, especially at these shelters. Personally, I can not see myself as a Public Health Nurse because I value the personal connections I can make with a one on one patient care. Although being a Public Health Nurse would not fulfill my wants of a personal