- Public nursing services offer children and adults immunizations that protect them from specific diseases and illnesses. Most public health departments in the U.S. can give immunizations for meningitis, pneumonia, whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox. They also have flu and tetanus shots. Each health department sets its own costs for these services, though insurance or Medicare may cover the expenses if a person qualifies.
- Lowering the mortality rate of infants is important for many public nursing organizations, which is why they provide prenatal services for pregnant women. These services include screenings, nutritional information and education on what to expect, what's normal and what activities to avoid while pregnant. Some of these services can extend beyond the birth of the child as public nurses provide breast-feeding education, and instructions on nutrition and food for low-income mothers and children through the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.
- More than half of American adults will have a sexually transmitted disease (STD) at some point during their lifetime, according to the American Social Health Association, while the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that approximately every 10 minutes someone is infected with HIV. To combat the spread of HIV and STDs, nurses in public health departments promote safe sex and provide confidential testing to those who think they may have been infected. If the tests are positive for HIV or an STD, public nurses can refer the affected individual to counseling and treatment services.
- A major role of nurses in public health departments is to be an advocate for prevention. Through advertising campaigns and educational programs, nurses can encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle that decreases their chances for certain diseases and the need for health services. Some of the topics they focus on are smoking, physical fitness, proper nutrition, obesity, alcoholism, drugs and STDs.
- Nurses in public health also play a critical role during the response to a pandemic or crisis. They can educate the general public on new diseases and how to prevent them, or provide nursing services during major natural disasters and crises where additional nurses and emergency personnel are needed to treat injured patients.
