1. PHN professional organization: Click the hyperlinks to read more about the PHN professional organizations. What are some reasons to join? What resources did you find? What did you learn from the site?
Association of Public Health Nurses http://www.phnurse.org/Why-Join
American Public Health Association https://www.apha.org/apha-communities/member- sections/public-health-nursing
Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments https://envirn.org/
2. Careers/employers of PHN: Spend at least 30 min exploring potential PHN careers at the following websites. Read the job descriptions/duties, educational qualifications, skills, and necessary experience. There may be other PHN websites (beyond this list) which you may want to explore.
AACN https://www.aacnnursing.org/Population-Health-Nursing/Student-Resources Texas Health and Human Services: put “nurse” in as the keyword and explore.
https://jobshrportal.hhsc.state.tx.us/ENG/careerportal/default.cfm
Federal jobs in Texas: USA jobs:
https://www.usajobs.gov/Search/?j=0610&l=Texas&p=1&k=Nurse
US Public Health Services: Some of these positions are for those who enlist but others are for civilians. For instance, the prison in Bryan is searching for an RN – civilian. https://usphs.gov/profession/nurse/
3. Certifications: After completing a BSN, you may be eligible to apply now or in the future for certifications in your current area of expertise or an area you are interested in pursuing. Please use this time to explore the certification requirements at these sites:
ANCC https://www.nursingworld.org/our-certifications/
Instructions: Write a short paper (no more than 1 page) and include the following:
Paragraph #1: Discussion of a PHN professional organization: What are some reasons to join? What resources did you find? How would joining a professional organization and having access to these resources benefit patient care?
Paragraph #2: Discussion of possible PHN jobs/careers. Provide a discussion on the job duties of PHN, educational requirements, skills, experience. What about the job is appealing to you? If none of the positions are appealing, how could you implement some of the PHN competencies in your practice or future practice?
Paragraph #3: Certifications: Choose a certification from ANCC that interests you (mine would be CPN Certified Pediatric Nurse). Are you eligible for a certification? Yes, I am eligible since I work in Pediatric ICU.
If not, what would you need to do to prepare? Example: “I will need to work an additional 300 clinical hours in the mental health field” or “I will need to pass a certification test. I will attend a workshop to find out more.