Public Health Nurse I
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About The Position
Schools and their communities play a key role in helping to establish lifelong healthy behaviors, and thereby improving health outcomes for Vermont's school-aged children. Healthy students are better learners, and academic achievement contributes to a lifetime of healthier living. However, today's students come to school with more challenges related to health and learning than ever before. Helping schools create healthier environments which meet the physical, emotional, and mental needs of their students will give all school-aged children an opportunity to reach their full academic potential as well as improve their long-term health outcomes. At the systems level, the Public Health Nurse works to improve student health and wellness by liaising between school nurses and primary care practices to improve student access to care. To help create healthier school environments, the Public Health Nurse provides direct support and technical assistance to school nurses in approximately 75 public and private schools in Chittenden County. Direct support and technical assistance includes answering public health-related questions concerning school-aged children, communicating relevant data, identifying and sharing evidence-based best practice models and/or toolkits, connecting to content area experts where available, and collaborating to identify problems and develop solutions. The Public Health Nurse works with school personnel (e.g., nurses, administrators, teachers) to help schools achieve their goals of meeting the health and wellness needs of their students. In addition to the school focused work, the Public Health Nurse works with three other nurses in the office to perform the clinical functions of a local health office. While local health offices do not provide health care to the public, there are some core public health functions that are clinical in nature: Venipuncture, Vaccination, Specimen collection, Tuberculosis case management and directly observed therapy. Competency and comfort in performing these functions is a core expectation. They may take place in an office, community, or home setting. The amount of time dedicated to clinical work can vary greatly. At times, it is minimal. At other times, it is the focus of work for an extended period. Working with interpreters is a regular part of the clinical work. The ability to seamlessly shift from school focused work to public health clinical work with little notice will be a skill that is regularly needed. In the event of an unexpected public health emergency normal operations could be paused all together to focus on emergency response work. Leading the clinical part of mass vaccination clinics is a common role of the Public Health Nurse during emergency response work. As part of the Vermont Department of Health, the Burlington District Office is the largest of 12 local health offices in Vermont. Located in Burlington, we strive to offer a supportive, professionally challenging, and healthy workplace to our employees.
