The Public Health Nurse Shortage and COVID-19
Public health nurses 鈥� PHNs 鈥� like Director of Shelby County TN Health Department, responding to the threat of the novel coronavirus pandemic.听
In Norwich, CT, PHN , which serves over 100,000 citizens. Dubb is also the only person in the district contact-tracing to help track the virus鈥檚 destructive path.听
Pennsylvania faces its own shortage of PHNs , leaving a public health workforce that is ill-equipped to meet the magnitude of today鈥檚 public health crisis.听
Nursing shortages are occurring all around the world.
In the next fifteen years, the global nursing deficit is , and currently, in America, we already face a . PHNs , so this increasing lack of nurses yields understaffed public health sectors and overworked PHNs we do have, like Haushalter and Dubb.
Public health nurses treat entire communities rather than individual patients, so their work during the current pandemic is focused on , coordinating community coronavirus testing plans, and making antibody tests available.听
Their job is to protect the entire population, so the goal is to stop the spread of the disease at large while bedside nurses focus on patients who have already become infected.
What鈥檚 causing the PHN shortage?
While there is no single factor at the root of this shortage, there are some indicators as to why our public health departments lack the nurses we need:
- Government funding
- Nurses reaching retirement age
- Public health departments lacking visibility
As with most systematic challenges, financing is a factor. in recent years, along with other national public health care systems that respond to public health emergencies. Individual states have also been cutting public health funding leaving state, city, and county health departments unprepared to respond to public health emergencies like COVID-19.听
The retirement of nurses already in the public health field is another reason for the gap between the public health workforce we need and the public health workforce we have available.
- were of retirement age by 2016听
- in the next ten to fifteen years.听
Typically, public health work is done behind the scenes.听
PHNs are often not represented on TV shows or in hospital settings; they are nurses who work at government levels instituting policies and strategies.听
Only in public health emergencies like the HIV epidemic, opioid epidemic, and COVID-19 pandemic, do people see how vital PHNs are to wellness. We now have without the resources to support that need.听
designed to protect us all.听
Public health nurses are responsible for the following current safety guidelines:
- Contact tracing
- Social distancing
- 蚕耻补谤补苍迟颈苍颈苍驳听
- Testing for the novel coronavirus
- Testing for virus antibodies
The community health sector is and nursing itself by 2028.听
This year, the World Health Organization giving attention and appreciation to the healthcare workers needed on a global level.听
University leaders are spreading awareness of the need for funding and recognition for nurses and public health at all times, not just during an emergency. Ann Kurth, PhD, RN, CNM, MPH, Dean, and Linda Koch Lorimer Professor at Yale University School of Nursing and Yale University School of Public Health are .
Nursing schools are incentivizing nurses to with some accelerated programs specifically designed for working nurses who want to specialize in public health.听
Today鈥檚 emergency status is only one of many examples of public health nurses in action. Community and public health nurses protect the population from a wide variety of health threats, from infectious disease to substance abuse. Current bedside RNs may want to further their careers in the public health field, working to protect the field itself and the communities it serves.听
With the global population on the rise and public health nurse numbers dwindling, they are needed more than ever.听
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