Senior Public Health Nurse

The Position

This is a continuous filing exam. Next filing cut-offs are at 5:00 pm on: 3/26/26, 4/30/26, 5/28/26, 6/25/26, 7/30/26, 8/27/26, 9/24/26, 10/29/26, 11/25/26, 12/31/26. Senior Public Health Nurses oversee and provide a variety of public health nursing services in a home, group or clinic setting, or in a specific program office, in such areas as prevention and treatment of communicable disease; child health care, growth and development; high-risk infants; home care guidance of the ill, injured and aged; prevention and treatment of disabling illnesses; family planning; parenting; pre- and postnatal care; immunization and inoculation; and, public and community health care resources. Incumbents work under general supervision of a Supervising Public Health Nurse or other professional nurse, or a higher-level program manager with medical direction as needed from a physician. The focus of duties is on serving as a program specialist and advisor, providing assistance to other staff, and performing the more difficult and complex public health nursing duties; incumbents may supervise or provide work direction to a small staff. Typical assignments of this class include the immunization assistance program, maternal/child health programs, disease control, and elderly assistance.

Examples of Knowledge and Abilities

Knowledge of professional public health nursing principles, procedures and techniques; State of California laws and regulations on nursing practices; normal course of illnesses and disabilities, and their treatment; family planning methods; pre-natal, pregnancy and post-natal nutrition and medical care; infant and child care, growth and development, including common illnesses; case management techniques and the care and treatment of high risk, physically impaired and developmentally disabled infants and children; substance abuse symptoms and intervention techniques; mental illness symptoms and intervention techniques; symptoms, prevention, reporting requirements and treatment of child and adult abuse and neglect; normal and abnormal family dynamics; techniques of organizing and conducting classes and training sessions on a variety of health subjects; individual and group counseling techniques applicable to public health nursing; common public and community health care resources; social and economic factors influencing individual and community health; differing cultural, religious and social attitudes about hygiene, family planning, child care, and health treatment; proper handling and administering of biologicals; proper handling of contaminated items; causes, control, detection, prevention and treatment of common communicable diseases, environmentally based illnesses, sexually transmitted diseases, and food and water-borne illnesses; procedures for conducting epidemological investigations; standard medical record keeping.

Ability to effectively communicate with and gain the cooperation of clients, and potential clients, of various social, cultural, economic and educational backgrounds; work cooperatively with other health and social service providers; effectively conduct interviews of patients and families to gain information to evaluate their medical situation; determine and apply effective means of intervening in cases of mental illness and substance abuse; effectively conduct and participate in in-service education and training; effectively demonstrate and teach care of infants, children, the disabled and chronically ill to individuals in their homes; effectively teach public group classes; gain cooperation of patients and other individuals in investigating and treating communicable diseases and environmentally-based illnesses; tolerate unsanitary homes; learn and comply with laws, rules, regulations, protocols, and procedures, including security requirements, applicable to the work unit; recognize and avoid or defuse potentially dangerous situations and hostile people; accurately evaluate cases to determine caseload priorities; plan routes and schedule in-home visits to make most effective use of time; operate slide and movie projectors, and use other teaching aids; maintain patient confidentiality.

Employment Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications Either: One year of experience as a Public Health Nurse in Sacramento County service. Or: Two years of experience as a licensed/certified public health nurse performing public health nursing duties. Note:

1. Experience requirements are stated as full-time work; to convert part-time to full-time equivalency: 173.6 = 21.7 days = 1 work month.
2. Required experience may be paid or unpaid.

Note: The word "experience" referenced in the minimum qualifications means full-time paid experience unless the job announcement states that volunteer experience is acceptable. Part-time paid experience may be accumulated and pro-rated to meet the total experience requirements.

Certificates/licenses: All persons appointed to these classes must possess and maintain a current Registered Nurse license and public health nurse specialty certificate issued by the state of California. Note: Failure to maintain such license and certification may be cause for disciplinary action in accordance with Civil Service Commission Rules. All persons appointed to these classes must possess and maintain a current California driver's license, class III or higher; failure to maintain such license may be cause for disciplinary action in accordance with Civil Service Commission Rules. Persons appointed to these classes will be required to have, or obtain, and maintain a valid CPR certificate

Other Requirements: Some positions in the classes of Public Health Nurse and Senior Public Health Nurse may require the ability to communicate fluently in a language other than English, in addition to English When required, the special skills may be used in the performance of typical tasks shown in the "Example of Duties" in this class specification. In addition, incumbents translate and interpret using standard English and a language other than standard English; and/or act as a consultant to others regarding the needs and problems presented by individuals of different languages and cultural backgrounds. The Civil Service Commission approved the use of selective certification for special skills for the classes of Public Health Nurse and Senior Public Health Nurse on May 12, 1989.

Probationary Period The probationary period for this classification is six (6) months.

Application and Testing Information

Qualified applicants are encouraged to apply immediately. All applicants must complete and submit an online County of Sacramento employment application by 5:00 PM on the posted cut-off date. Employment applications and all documentation requested in this announcement must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on the cut-off date. Your application should highlight all relevant education, training, and experience, and clearly indicate how you meet the minimum qualifications for the position as of the cut-off date. Application information must be current, concise and related to the requirements in this job announcement. You may only apply for this recruitment once. Duplicate and incomplete applications will be disqualified.

Applicants are required to provide a full and complete response to each supplemental question. The Supplemental Questionnaire is located in the tab marked "Supplemental Questions". Please be descriptive in your response. Supplemental Questionnaires must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on the cut-off date. The supplemental questions are designed to elicit specific information regarding a candidate's experience, education, and training. Responses should be consistent with the information on your application and are subject to verification.

All candidates meeting the minimum qualifications by the cut-off date will have their Supplemental Questionnaire scored in the Formula Rate Examination. This examination will evaluate the relevance, level, recency, progression and quality of candidate's education, training and experience. The candidate's application or other materials will not be included in this examination. Therefore, the candidate's responses to the supplemental questionnaire should be thorough, detailed and complete. The score from the Formula Rate Examination will determine the ranking on the eligible/employment list for this job. All candidates competing in the testing process will receive written notice of their examination results by email. Notices can also be accessed in their governmentjobs.com inbox. Applicants achieving a passing score will be placed on the eligible list in rank order. The rank is determined by the test score attained from the examination.

Benefits

At Sacramento County, we strive to provide benefit programs designed to meet our employees' current and future needs and help them as they balance their careers and personal life. County of Sacramento employees have a variety of benefits available. These benefits include:

• Dental Insurance
• Vision Benefits
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Health Insurance
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Life Insurance
• Critical Illness
• Retiree Health Savings Plan (RHSP)
• Deferred Compensation

More information can be found on the Benefits website Temporary positions: Most benefits do not apply to temporary positions. Vacation: Generally, vacation with pay begins at 10 days annually. With increase over a period of years, the maximum annual vacation with pay is 25 days. Holidays: 14.5 holidays per year as recognized by the Board of Supervisors. Sick Leave: Equivalent to 15 days annually, unlimited accumulation.

Tuition Reimbursement: Regular County employees may be eligible to receive Tuition Reimbursement. The costs for course tuition/registration fees and required books/supplies may be eligible for