Do the nurses in your department do any work beyond running clinics? If so, what other work are they doing? What titles, beyond those traditional nursing roles, are your nurses filling? What is the title/name of the division your nurses work under (aside from nursing specific services)?

Nurses in my department do health education, communicable disease, rabies, lead poisoning prevention, and maternal child health home visiting. I have RN, PHN, and SPHN positions, and they all work in the “prevent” department.

We would like responses to be shared with us.The nurses in our department fill a wide variety of roles: WIC clinics, Reproductive Health Center, Hospice, Maternal Child Health, Breastfeeding Friends of Livingston County,Lead, Immunization,Early Intervention, Children with Special Health Care Needs, Communicable Disease, Tuberculosis, Preschool Program, Cancer Services Program, and a Foster Care Nurse that we contract with the Department of Social Services to oversee the medical, dental, and mental health needs of children in care. The division that the nurses work under is the Center for Community Health.

Our nurses are Public Health Nurses that work clinics, take Rabies calls, work weekends including home health visits and take on-call responsibility related to the CHHA, sit on coalitions and committees, work with the schools related to immunizations and communicable disease, complete communicable disease investigations, resource to the Public, outreach/detailing, EI intake and fill many grant requirements.  This activity is within the Prevent Unit/Local Health Department.

We have 4 nursing positions in the department.  Clinic activities is limited and does not comprise the bulk of their work.  We have 2 PHNs and 2 RNs. One PHN is a supervising nurse who is involved with policy development, quality assurance.  This nurse is also our only Maternal & Child Health Nurse who conducts mch home visits.  She is also lactation certified and does breastfeeding training and coordinates our breastfeeding “cafes” with our local hospitals.  The remaining three nurses are focused on childhood lead, disease surveillance, AFIX visits.  We are in the early stages of expanding some of their work into chronic disease and injury prevention.  One of the nurses backs up our Disease Specialist (non-nurse) when there is an outbreak or when the Disease Specialist is on leave.  all 4 nurses participate in our immunization clinics.  We do have a nurse available to assist our contracted infectious disease doc when we have a TB case, but we only have a few a year.  All four nurses work within our Division of Community Health.

Running clinics is a very small part of what our nursing staff does. Our nurses work in just about every public health program we conduct.

• Communicable Disease: CD nurses conduct disease investigations on a daily basis including client and provider interviews, downloading and interpreting disease reports form ECLRS, interpret data and look at trending. Provide educational presentations to schools, providers, community.
• Lead Poisoning Prevention: Download data from LeadWeb daily, interpret results and conduct case management working with the EHS staff, provide educational presentations to schools, providers, community on lead poisoning prevention.
• Maternal Child Health: Home visits to new moms and babies providing physical assessment, parenting education, lactation services, evaluate for developmental delays and work closely with EI and CPS. MCH nurses also conduct parenting groups throughout the county.
• STDs: Follow-up on all reports of sexually transmitted diseases with clients and providers for treatment completion, education of providers in proper treatment regimes. Work with MARO to make sure partner notification/partner services is provided.
• TB control: connect patients to our contracted agency for assessment, evaluation and diagnosis. We provide all meds, including DOT for active TB, and all meds for LTBI. Follow patients until treatment is completed. Provide education to providers regarding updates on TB treatment, conduct al contact investigations.
• PHEP: Nurses work with PHEP Coordinator to plan mandatory PHEP exercises, develop policies and procedures for emergency preparedness program. Work with Bureau of Emergency Services on shelter planning and operations, comfort stations, and develop policies and procedures to be used as guidance documents for local townships.
• Opioid Overdose Prevention Program: Develop policies and procedures for Putnam County DOH OOP Program. Order, track and disburse all Narcan supplies. Provide Narcan training for local police departments, schools, libraries, community agencies.
• Rabies: Work closely with EHS to provide appropriate rabies treatment to clients approved for post-exposure prophylaxis.
• Children’s Camps: Work with the public health sanitarians to inspect the health services provided at our summer children’s camps.
• Public Health Accreditation: Serve on the accreditation committee working towards/maintaining all accreditation standards

This is just the tip of the iceberg! Our nurses are much more involved than just our clinics…..public health is much more than clinics!!!!

Yes, they do in Steuben. They have primary responsibility over QI, rabies, communicable disease, TB/LTBI, Lead, MCH and STD. Their titles are either just PHN or PH Coordinator/Supervisor.

There are situations when our nurses work out of title by performing social work tasks. In some cases the social issues need to be addressed before our patients can be compliant with treatment.

Some of our nurses work at DSS in children services reviewing medical records and doing joint visit for various concerns, FTT and weight checks, asthmatic patients, NAS…some of our nurses work in environmental health in the Healthly neighborhoods program and the HUD grant, providing lead tests… we have other nurses working in grants running the baby cafe and teaching and supporting breastfeeding …

We have nursing titles of Community Health Nurse and Supervising Public Health Nurse. All of the nurse work in Immunization clinic, rabies and health education. One of the nurses does mostly Lead and MCH home visits. And another one does communicable disease investigations.

See attachment.

Erie County has Public Health Nurses working in our Division of Environmental Health.  The nurses work in our Child Lead program.  The nurses perform case management and complete home visits related to high blood lead levels in children.

In both Schuyler and Yates Counties our nurses work in various roles all with the titles of Public Health Nurse (PHN). Duties include Lead Program Coordinator, IAP Coordinator, Communicable Disease, Quality Improvement, Chronic Disease, Maternal Child Health and my Deputy DPH is also a nurse.

Cayuga County Health Dept.: We hire nurses under our Community Health Services Division (this division provides Imm., Lead, MCH, Nurse Family Partnership, health education, some grant funded programs like WIC and CA Services and DTC Art. 28, LHCSA Art 36). Director of Community Health Services is a RN with her BSN—it is her license on the LHCSA and D&TC. Supervision Public Health Nurse: a RN with her BSN she supports director of CHS but primarily oversees our Maternal and Child Health, Nurse Family Partnership and support for Immunization clinics. Supervising Community Health Nurse: a RN with experience (person in the role has advanced degree other than BSN) he supports Director and also primarily supervises immunization programs, communicable disease, nursing component of lead poisoning. Public Health Nurse: a RN with her BSN she primarily supports Communicable Disease and immuniziaotns , back up for MCH visits. Registered Professional Nurse: a RN, she primarily does MCH visits, supports immunization program. Family Nurse Partnership Nurse: a RN she primarily performs Nurse Family Partnership and supports immunization. Public Health Nurse Part time: a RN with her BSN acts as float for NFP and Imm program. We try to cross train staff. 3 nurses are certified lactation consultants too. Rabies Coordinator—happens to be a nurse but hired as rabies Coordinator which does not require RN. Early Intervention Service Coordinator—one of our EISC is a RN but was hired as a EISC not as a nurse which does not require a nurse

Do the nurses in your department do any work beyond running clinics?
Yes. Multiple roles

If so, what other work are they doing? State Aid/Prevention program coordination that includes: Surveillance and Investigation, Education and outreach for STD, LYME/Tick borne diseases, Communicable Diseases, Tuberculosis, Lead Poisoning Prevention, Rabies. Immunization Program Coordination, education, outreach to physicians, school nurses, and public; and NYSIIS reporting; besides covering immunization clinics at LHD base and at migrant farms and backstretch. MCH/Family Health program coordination is an area that we struggle to find appropriate nursing staff to fill; in the process of hiring a nurse with appropriate background in MCH at this time.

What titles, beyond those traditional nursing roles, are your nurses filling? All are compensated at the rate of either RN or PHN (RN with BSN); except for Supervisor PHN, a third compensation level.

What is the title/name of the division your nurses work under (aside from nursing specific services)? Full time Nurses are assigned by program and claimed under the State Aid programs.