so lately i’ve taken a great interest in community/public/rural health nursing (did i tell you guys this already?)

yes i’m still interested in women’s health and yes still pursuing midwifery

i have found that my strengths in nursing involve therapeutic communication and (at times) education. i also feel good at psych/mental health but really can’t take on that burden  (i know my limits) but i know this is a part of community health as well since mental patients are in the community

i feel that this will also help address my concern with wanting to be knowledgeable in a variety of areas esp primary care areas concerning issues my family members experience because i know they’ll come asking me and i want to be able to help ( i need to be able to help) so in a position where i am possibly one of the main providers of healthcare for a community, i would be forced to be knowledgeable of info and resources and i’d also get to build those strong relationships and trust in teh community

also i’ve always worked in the community someway or another and i have found that this really helps keep me in touch with the real causes  behind some health disparities. i’ve seen people in the clinical setting get so caught up w/ the frustrations of the lcinical setting that they never address the root of the issue which can be found in the person’s actual environment at home/in the community

this is something i preach on all the time

but i’ve been looking into a lot of programs (many of which help repay loans because they need ppl!) which involve working with women who are expecting or have newborns and going to their homes (idk bout all that) and assessing them and providing them w/ health care there or referring them to where they need to go. prenatal and postpartum care in this environment would be pretty cool

my job wouldn’t be the same daily

i  know many people in community health or those working for health departments, for example, get cross-trained in multiple areas of the health department (ie peds, STI clinic, immunizations, HIV care, maternal/newborn, family planning, primary care, etc) how exciting! and they have a lot of autonomy compared to in a hosp setting. the hours are more routine like m-f 9-4 (i dislike this but maybe nt so bad if i’m not in one location all day everyday) and there’s no weekends or nights or holidays (i don’t mind the first 2).

lower pay but great benefits and exposure!

i also wouldn’t mind working at a rural hosp just to experience dealing w/ situations w/ limited resources and upper-level staffing

maybe i’m too optimistic about being in the trenches lol but i really want to build these kind of skills

yes i know it’d be frustrating i’m sure, but i thnk i’d like the challenge and responsibility

so i’ve been talking w/ some of the community health faculty here to see how i can incorporate community health and women’s health into my transition period for my next (AND FINALLLLLLL) semester (all praises to God!)

and how about the physician consult for the local nurse-managed clinic is a physician whose area of focus is women’s health (score) and also was a nurse before becoming  a doctor (score) and has a husband who is an obgyn (score) who operates his own practice which is affiliated w/ the hosp i work for (score) and employs a midwife (score) and a new grad and sometimes students so i def want to get a few hrs in there

my associate in the ER who works w/ me used to work as a med asst for him and got to even transport w/ the patients in labor to the hosp even if htey had to go to the OR

i just want to see what he will let me do

because i also want to see some gynecologic procedures that he does in his office

he also just hired a newly graduated physician

i gotta get in w/ these ppl!

great connections, i see it now

i also want to work w/ the immigrant population to improve my medical spanish

and thankfully the professor in charge of the community health transition option is the woman i’ve had every semester and who i will be asking to write my letter of rec for any and everything (she needs to hurry up and get that PhD behind her name! lol) and she really thinks i do great work (score)

and she’s all over hte place- like me- and has been all over the place nursing wise so i know if i dump all of these things i want to do in her lap she will help me make it happen

i’m so excited!

my other transition option preferences would be L&D and OR (only because i already work in teh ER and i thought OR would be cool in case i don’t see one for a long time but then i thought about how cold..and how early..and…yea so really it’s between labordeliver and community health)

i do feel like i want to be in the hospital setting as well though because 1) the  pay and the schedule 2) the clinical and critical thinking skills every1 says i’ll learn my first year on the job (that i obviously am not fully getting from these powerpoint lectures!) and 3) i do like the clinical setting…when it’s L&D or ER lol

so at some point (most likely when i am a WHNP/CNM) i will be dividing my time between the hospital, the clinic, the school (it’d be cool to teach) and community outreach..oh and acting of course..and maybe some time abroad!

ok those are my plans

there you have it

nurses can do anything i love the flexibility and options

any others interested in community/public/rural nursing?

everyone seems so satisfied and happy with it. i was so happy to read on allnurses people who also hated clinicals in nursing school and questioned if the hospital was the ONLY place for them. i know that’s where we will all be running to after graduation but i really really really want something non-traditional- like me! =)