Life As a Community Health Nurse

By admin | October 26, 2017

Interested in a career that is dedicated to the health and well-being of the community you serve? Then you may be interested in becoming a community nurse! From educating others on disease prevention to providing clinical care, your efforts will help your community combat common and chronic health problems.

What is Unique About a Community Health Nurse Role?

As a community health nurse — sometimes called population or public health nurses — your role is to provide access to healthcare for the community at large, not just those that seek care in a medical facility. These nurses take healthcare to the people by traveling to neighborhoods with prevention and education efforts, as well offering on-location services specifically designed for those who may not be otherwise able to afford medical care. Serving those in need is the heart of community health nursing.

In this career, your job will include identifying and addressing poor self-care to help your patients lower their health risks as you work to decrease the number of visits to hospitals, ERs and doctors’ offices in the community. This will require a broad knowledge of preventable issues stemming from diet, sexual practices, substance abuse, and social or domestic violence.

Your working environment will range from private homes to community centers, workplaces, clinical care sites and health-related community events. You may also be called upon to provide services during a public emergency or as part of a disaster response plan.

Is the Need for Community Health Nurses Growing?

Yes. As the average life expectancy grows and chronic illnesses increase, community health nurses play critical roles in healthcare education and delivery. Demand is very high, especially for positions that work with vulnerable populations. More information about the expected growth of this field is available through the Association of Community Health Nursing Educators (ACHNE), an organization dedicated to serving public health nursing professionals.

According to the American Nursing Association, job opportunities outside of a hospital setting represent one of the four biggest nursing trends. Nursing positions focused on the community — such as in-home care, population health, and chronic care in special facilities — are on the rise. This growth is largely due to the opportunities created in response to the Affordable Care Act and an increased focus on the consumer’s role in their own health.

What Does It Take to Be a Great Community Nurse?

First, it takes passion. Many community nurses believe they have the very best job in the world. On a daily basis, they’re rewarded by seeing the impact they make in the community. From regular interactions with community members, they know they are making a difference.

Being a community health nurse also requires seeing the big picture. Community health nurses seek to change not only individual habits, but also those of entire populations such as women, children, ethnic and cultural groups, those living with diseases like HIV/AIDS, and those with various chronic conditions. Building community education is key in affecting transformational change.

Lastly, great community nurses are curious and creative. They dig deeply to the root causes of health issues and innovate strategic plans to help prevent these problems from growing. As a community nurse, you’ll be working with healthcare delivery, and also leading interventions that address social factors such as poverty, education and institutional bias that limits access to health care. Through addressing the broader spectrum of health and wellness, you will promote social justice by striving to close the healthcare gap for vulnerable communities.

What Will My Day to Day Schedule Be Like?

Depending on your position, you can expect a wide variety of daily tasks. Most of these will fit within a scheduled “9-to-5” work day. Because you are dealing with the broader population, you will not see the scheduling and shift changes traditional clinical care nurses often experience in a hospital setting.

What Can I Expect to Earn Annually?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual salary for a health educator was $53,000 in 2016. However, your earning potential will change based on the community you work in, your individual experiences, and the position you choose.

How Will Having My RN-BSN Degree from University of Louisville Help?

University of Louisville’s online Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN-BSN) degree is designed specifically for registered nurses who want to take that next step in their career. The entry level requirements for community health educators starts with a bachelor’s degree. Earning your online nursing degree from University of Louisville will not only qualify you for these positions, but will also open the opportunity to chart further career growth and improve your lifetime earning potential.

Another exceptional benefit to pursuing your RN-BSN at UofL is previous work experience can earn you up to 30 credits toward graduation through the program’s professional portfolio – that’s a potential savings of more than $14,000 in tuition!

Learn more about UofL’s online RN-BSN degree and take that next step in your nursing career today!

From the Online Classroom to an Overseas Hospital

By admin | November 2, 2016

Rhea T. Williams, BSN, RN, BS is a married mother of two, a U.S. Air Force veteran and has worked as an ICU nurse in Germany and the US. She shares her experience as an online student pursuing her RN-BSN degree at UofL and details how the degree has made a difference in her career.

Tell us a little about your career path leading up to your decision to enroll at UofL.

“I came to nursing after working in other areas of healthcare for a few years. As a first generation immigrant to the U.S., I witnessed first-hand the struggle of trying to access healthcare and dealing with all other seemingly more pressing aspects of every-day life.

My career in nursing is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream to become a primary healthcare provider. After the completion of my associate’s degree, I began working as a critical care nurse in an Intermediate Care Unit (IMCU) in inner city Baltimore. I went on to become a Cum Laude graduate of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing for Registered Nurses at University of Louisville while living in Germany, and I currently work as an ICU nurse at a large hospital and PRN ICU at a small community hospital. In addition to my degrees in nursing, I also hold a Bachelor of Science in Psychology.”

What motivated you to pursue an RN-BSN online program?

“My job as a critical care IMCU nurse in Baltimore placed me on the front lines of working with under-served populations. Most of the clients were uninsured and sought healthcare assistance only after multiple problems had compounded into complex cases. Even though I worked on the IMCU, our ICU at that facility was so small that we cared for clients that normally would be ICU patients at other hospitals.

It was a great learning experience and propelled me to further my education in Nursing so that I could be of greater assistance to those with the greatest need. I decided that I wanted to complete a bachelor’s in nursing and hopefully continue on to the FNP one day.”

Why did you choose UofL’s online RN-BSN?

“I chose UofL after much deliberation, because I knew that I would be completing the majority of my degree while living in Germany. It was important to me that the process of completing my degree was as streamlined as possible and that everything would be as accessible to me as if I was living in the United States.

While there are several wonderful universities in my home state of Maryland, I was searching for a school that would be able to tailor the program to my unique circumstances, while having the support systems of a large university. Of course it didn’t hurt that UofL is an amazing school with a great reputation in the academic world.”

What did you like best about the RN-BSN program at UofL?

“My favorite classes were A&P and Pharmacology, mostly because I found them to be the most challenging. I really appreciated taking those courses, as some BSN programs do not require these two classes for graduation. I think that they really provide a solid foundation for becoming a better nurse and for pursuing graduate level studies.”

Do you have a favorite project you worked on in this program?

“My absolute favorite was the community health project at the end of the program. As I was in Germany I had to go out into the community, explore the German healthcare system and collect various health statistics. I spoke with German doctors, nurses and healthcare administrators about how they approach care and how the national insurance system works there. It allowed me to gain a better understanding of different approaches to healthcare that I might not have otherwise experienced.”

How did the 100% online format work for you?

“Well, as you can guess by now, the online format would be the only one that would work for me. Frankfurt, Germany is six hours ahead of Maryland, and so an 8:00 a.m. start for me was the middle of “snooze time” for everyone physically at UofL. I needed to be able to access my virtual classroom at any time and complete coursework as necessary.

We also spent a good portion of time traveling, which made it important that the system requirements were as universally standard as possible so that I could use most computers anywhere to complete class tasks and assignments on Blackboard.”

How has UofL’s RN-BSN program helped you in your current position?

“I feel the education I received at UofL gave me the confidence to go into ICU nursing knowing that I had a good academic foundation. As I said earlier, I really value the coursework requirements in this program. Every class was informative, applicable and relevant to the practice of nursing today. It also fostered a desire to make improvements in my individual practice of nursing.

I personally wrote and developed a mentorship program for new nurses at my hospital using the tools that I gained completing my degree at UofL. The benefits of a UofL education are prominent and palpable.”

What does your current career path hold for you? Where would you like to go?

“I am currently in the process of completing applications for graduate school — yes, back to school for me. I plan on becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner and heading back to some of those immigrant and underserved communities I hold dear to my heart. It is my goal to complete the DNP as a terminal degree in nursing, but I am not ruling out an additional Masters in Public Health like one of my UofL professors and mentors.”

What advice do you have for other online students considering enrollment at UofL?

“In order to be successful at online learning, honest self-evaluation is key. Know how you learn, what you need in order to complete coursework and tasks. Know when to ask for help. Your professors are there to help you and will do what is needed to ensure that you gain the knowledge if you are putting forth the effort.

All of my professors at UofL were always only a short email away. Just because you are a distance student does not mean that you do not have the same access and support traditional students do.”

Join nurses like Rhea on a path to success with UofL online learning!

The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program at UofL is designed for nurses with an associate degree or a nursing diploma. The program potentially qualifies registered nurses for higher earnings and a broader range of employment opportunities. This program also facilitates the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation that 80% of nurses earn a BSN degree by the year 2020.

UofL’s online RN-BSN program was recently honored with a ranking of ninth in the nation for value and curriculum quality by affordablecolleges.com. Working nurses can complete the Bachelor of Science in Nursing in as few as five semesters, although students are welcome to take more time if needed.

Seize The Day: Advice from a Recent Graduate of UofL’s RN-BSN Online Program

By admin | August 11, 2016

Forensic Nurse Specialist Emily Neal Makes the Case for “No Time Like the Present” as She Follows Her Own Passion

Seize the day. That’s the advice of Emily Neal, RN, a forensic nurse specialist and recent graduate of UofL’s online program for the RN-BSN degree.

“The online RN to BSN program at UofL is excellent,” says the recent grad, who, like many other nurses, had put off the decision to advance her degree. Once she joined UofL’s online program, however, the ease and convenience of the flexible format made the transition back to school much easier than she expected.

Her advice to other nurses looking to enroll?
“Just do it.”

“You have to start somewhere,” she adds. “And today is as good as any.”

Neal, who graduated in December of 2015, also expressed her appreciation for the program structure. Of particular note was the ability for nurses in the online program to tailor research topics, assignments and reports to areas of their own specialty.

Neal is a forensic nurse with a passion for child protection and child welfare in Kentucky. As an online student, she was able to apply her coursework to this personal interest. And as a forensic nurse, she could also emphasize this nursing specialty in her courses and key areas of learning.

“Throughout the classes—from the research classes to the health communications classes—the instructors allow students to pick topics that interest them,” Neal says. “You can focus papers and assignments around them, so it creates a more personal learning experience.”

“The ability to customize my assignments to child welfare helps me be a better nurse in my chosen field of interest,” she added.

Neal is excited to move forward in her career with her new degree, and she encourages other nurse who are on the fence to make the jump and enroll. “It’s very doable,” she says. “The classmates are great, the instructors are wonderful. I can’t say enough good things about the program.”

Don’t miss Emily Neal’s interview video about her experience at the University of Louisville and her advice to prospective students seeking their RN-BSN though UofL’s convenient online program.

Learn more about the RN-BSN program here … or explore the many benefits of the online experience on the UofL Online Learning website.

UofL Online Nursing Program Offers New Curriculum for a New Era of Healthcare

By admin | April 21, 2016

Take Your Nursing Skills to the Next Level with UofL’s Redesigned Curriculum

The nursing profession with the healthcare landscape is changing. Are you changing with it?

With the University of Louisville’s online RN-to-BSN program, recently ranked among Top 10 most affordable online programs in the nation among public or private not-for-profit schools*, you can prepare for the future of nursing. Our comprehensive curriculum is redesigned to emphasize a suite of key competencies that the industry most demands, now and in the future.

Population Health is shifting the paradigm away from “public health” as nurses have always known it, and making sweeping changes to the healthcare delivery model along the way. UofL understands this trend, and has created a responsive curriculum that develops nursing expertise in key areas like population health, care coordination, case management and community health and intervention. The program has evolved to offer a greater emphasis on the skills employers are looking for as they shift from in-patient nursing to community-based intervention and care models.

Some of the BSN courses have been combined and restructured, while others, such as population health and nursing leadership and health policy, are new to the program. Courses such as symptom management, health promotion and proactive health care shift the focus from the hospital setting to anticipate the need for nurses in community-based settings like health education, outpatient and retail services, school programs and many others.

Best of all, the program is designed to save students nearly $5,000 in tuition annually, for total tuition savings of more than $14,000 per program.

The School of Nursing at UofL has redesigned the RN-to-BSN program offered completely online for registered nurses with an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) or a Nursing Diploma, preparing them to reach their professional potential for improved salaries and a broader range of employment opportunities. The program also aligns its goals with the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation that 80% of nurses earn a BSN degree by the year 2020.

“The UofL RN-to-BSN program allows working nurses to obtain a baccalaureate degree at their own pace and with the benefit of support from the university’s excellent faculty and student services,” said Marcia J. Hern, Ed.D., C.N.S., R.N., dean of the UofL School of Nursing. “This ranking offers exceptional value for their education dollar.” Hern added.

The UofL program, which was honored with a ranking of ninth in the nation for affordability, value and curriculum, requires completion of 31 core credit hours. Students enrolled in the program also have the opportunity to document their experience and prove their competencies, and build a Nursing Portfolio which can earn them 30 additional credit hours, tuition-free. Saving nursing students tuition dollars is a major focus of the program’s redesign and the portfolio project gets students closer to their graduation faster.

Working students may complete the program in as few as 5-semesters, on a part-time schedule.

“The affordability and convenience of the online education platform combined with the strong support of award-winning faculty and access to all university support services makes the online RN-to-BSN program ideal for nurses seeking a baccalaureate degree” Hern said.

Get the Skills You Need—with the convenience of UofL’s “Top 10 ranked” BSN degree online. Learn more about available online programs on the UofL Online Learning website.

*Ranking provided by AffordableCollegesOnline.org

Category: RN to BSN