Public Health Nurse

Public Health Nurse

This position is responsible for performing public health nursing services in a clinical office or community setting. The Public Health Nurse (PHN) utilizes standing orders signed by the agency Medical Director to carry out specified nursing policies and procedures. This position ensures a positive patient care experience by efficiently managing patient interactions, including greeting, preparing, and providing follow-up according to established public health nurse competency guidelines, policies, and procedures.

We offer a competitive starting rate of $20.09 - $34.37 per hour, depending on education, relevant skills, and previous experience in the field.

Essential Activities:

1. Evaluate and provide skilled nursing care to treat patients as medically necessary:
2. Investigate and assess medical needs.
3. Administer medication injections and immunizations.
4. Prescribe treatment plans and counsel appropriately.
5. Regularly evaluate plan of care for implementation.
6. Document patient encounters timely and accurately.
7. Follow standing orders as written.
8. Participate in and offer insight into ongoing clinical process improvement efforts.
9. Provide ongoing health maintenance and clinical management:
10. Direct and assist with screening programs.
11. Collect laboratory specimens and conduct laboratory and diagnostic testing.
12. Consult with other professionals.
13. Maintain patient files according to protocol:
14. Review and interpret clinical policies.
15. Coordinate and maintain supplies and medication.
16. Assist clinical staff with control of communicable diseases.
17. Maintain documentation according to the agency Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system.
18. Follow all confidentiality and HIPAA guidelines.
19. Provide education programs for community outreach:
20. Conduct health prevention and promotional activities.
21. Conduct community outreach efforts and participate in outreach events.
22. Determine community needs based on the foundational public health services model.
23. Assist with the development, implementation, and usage of public health-focused programs.
24. Assist in providing instructions to individuals and groups on health-related subjects including immunizations, family planning, nutrition, wellness, infectious diseases, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, etc.
25. Utilize established health intervention strategies.
26. Meet specific and measurable program objectives and deliverables.
27. Participate in planning, developing, evaluating, and monitoring programs, services, and contracts.
28. Become acquainted and involved with community agencies and groups engaged in health, family services, and educational activities; encourage the use of available medical services and other services available in the community.
29. Follow state and federal program guidelines and reporting requirements.
30. Participate in training and seminars concerning clinical functions, established programs, and ongoing staff development activities.
31. Participate in internal and external training sessions, workshops, and seminars to maintain current knowledge of clinical functions, evidence-based practices, regulatory requirements, and established program standards.
32. Engage in ongoing staff development activities to enhance clinical competencies, professional growth, and quality of care delivery.
33. Coordinate, schedule, and track required training for clinical staff to ensure compliance with program-specific goals, accreditation standards, and organizational policies.
34. Additional reporting and other duties as needed.

Behavior Competencies:

1. Attendance: Employee is expected to adhere to the JCHD Policy and Procedures for attendance and breaks and communicate with your supervisor about anticipated modifications.
2. Communication Skills: Understand and communicate professionally and effectively with others using a variety of contexts and formats, which include writing, speaking, reading, listening, and interpersonal skills.
3. Dependability: Meets commitments, works independently, accepts accountability, handles change, sets personal standards, and stays focused under pressure.
4. Integrity: Earns the trust and confidence of coworkers and customers through honest communication, ethical behavior, and professionalism in all interactions.
5. Problem Solving: Breaks down problems into smaller components, can simplify and process complex issues, can identify and understand root cause.
6. Productivity: Manages a fair workload, prioritizes tasks, develops good work procedures, manages time well, and handles information flow.
7. Quality: Is attentive to detail and accuracy, is committed to excellence, looks for improvements continuously, monitors quality levels, finds root cause of quality problems, owns/acts on quality problems.
8. Teamwork: Contributes to meeting team deadlines and responsibilities, listens to others and values opinions, helps team to meet goals, welcomes newcomers and promotes a cooperative team atmosphere

Requirements

Qualifications & Education Requirements:

• Valid, unrestricted Missouri Registered Nurse License, Licensed Practical Nurse License, or completion of a nursing program at an accredited diploma school of nursing and actively pursuing Nursing licensure.
• Valid driver's license.
• Bachelor's Degree is preferred but not required.
• Bilingual is a plus but not required.
• CPR Certification.

Foundational Public Health Services:

Ability to follow the Missouri Foundational Public Health Services model's capabilities and areas of expertise as necessary for this position.

Continuing Education:

Although not mandatory, completing continuing education coursework is encouraged to maintain currency in the discipline. Additionally, emergency response training courses must be completed within established time frames, as identified by ordinance, statute, or administration. Annually, JCHD administration will require various coursework completions, not specific to any discipline; that is deemed beneficial to the organization as a whole.

Work Conditions:

This position entails work that may be required at multiple locations, involving minimal lifting/carrying. There may be occasional evening and/or weekend work, and individuals should be prepared to work in reasonable adverse weather conditions such as snow, rain, or heat. All staff at JCHD are designated as first responders during public health emergencies. Therefore, employees must be available 24/7/365 if called upon during an emergency event.

Additional Notes:

This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying the position. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other Health Department-related duties requested by their supervisor, subject to reasonable accommodation.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, genetic information, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.