Public Health Nursing

Public health nursing interventions, such as immunization efforts; communicable non-communicable disease control; chronic disease and injury prevention; and coordination of local all-hazards preparedness and response, are focused on providing essential population-based services. In today’s changing healthcare landscape, clinicians, regardless of practice area, have a mission to keep their patients healthy where they live and work. Public health nurses are uniquely equipped to play a role in the local public health arena by keeping their communities healthy where they live and work.

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly highlighted the significant deficiency in public health nursing services in many of our local communities. From communicable disease control and investigations to immunization, public health nurses are providing critical functions for many local health departments. These services are often understaffed and underfunded.

The resources in this chapter outline the many functions and topics public health nurses must be proficient in. Included is source information both for the non-nursing staff to better understand public health nursing needs, as well as a solid information base of resources for nurses who are confronting nearly all the public health issues they are trained to handle.

Resources

Topic Areas & Resources