Public Health Nurse Interview

In the Nursing Specialties series, we have met Telemetry, Family Practice, Labor and Delivery, and Pediatric ICU nurses. In this post, you will be introduced to Marilyn, a Public Health Nurse working in the Middle East! 

What type of nursing do you do? 

I'm a public health nurse working and teaching at a public university in Northern Iraq. I just arrived in September and prior to that had a career at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as a Public Health Nurse Adviser. It was an amazing job that took me to the immigrant and refugee communities all over the state of Massachusetts. I really loved it, but I love being back living and working in the Middle East. 

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and why you chose that specialty? 

I began loving public health when I first worked for a grant-funded cancer prevention program in Massachusetts many years ago. I had grown up overseas and had been exposed to public health, but never really realized how critical it is to the health of a community until I began working in the program. The program is called the National Breast and Cervical Early Detection Program. I realized how critical it was for communities to be involved and able to learn about health at the community level. The old ounce of prevention adage could not be more true. 

How is your specialty unique to other types of nursing? Challenges? Rewards? 

Marilyn with her completed
public health project

Public health nursing challenges you to think creatively. You are tasked with serving the most people you can with the smallest amount of money possible. You are tasked with going into the neediest communities where you may face massive cross-cultural barriers and work with the community to determine the best solutions. You have to have a lot of cultural humility and be constantly willing to ask if you are on the right track.  The challenges are to get people to actually pay attention to public health - whether it's individuals or the health system itself. Emergency nursing, ICU, and so many other areas are way flashier than public health. There is a massive gap between clinical care and public health, and nurses are poised to be able to bridge the gap when they are allowed and prepared to do so. Once you've worked on a project and put your lifeblood into it, the rewards are remarkable. For example, I worked on a public health project with foreign-born Muslim women for two years
before I moved to Iraq. It was an incredible project to be a part of and we were received so generously by the foreign-born Muslim community. That project resulted in a fantastic community intervention that can now be broadly used all over the world as it is translated in Arabic and English. I am so proud of what we were able to accomplish in that project! 

Did you work in another specialty before going to this one? If so, how did your prior experience help you prepare for what you do now? 

I was a stay at home mom for 11 years before rejoining the workforce, and I've mostly been in public and population based health since that time. 

Is your current job a step towards a bigger goal? 

I longed to come back to the Middle East to work since I left 20 years ago. It's a gift to be here. I can't imagine that I will be here much longer than two years, but it's been a gift and I'm not looking beyond that right now! I've had amazing opportunities in my life working and living in four different countries and three different states. 

Did you need special certifications to work where you do? If so, how did you get them? 

I didn't get certification but I did a lot of continuing-ed courses. A few of those were Stanford University's Chronic Disease Self-Management and Diabetes-Management Programs. I became certified as a cultural competency trainer. I took the diabetes wellness program. I also did a graduate certificate mid-level management program. So it resulted in this really unique mix of experience and courses that has served me well in my career. 

What is a "typical" shift like? 

The beauty in public health is that you say goodbye to shift work! No more weekends. No more holidays. It's one of the reasons why I went into public health. 

What would you tell a nursing student interested in your specialty? 

Try and meet with a public health nurse and talk to them about what they do. Think about healthcare around the world today - how much money is spent on tertiary care and how much we really need to focus on public health. Learn more about population-based health and the ways that we can creatively work to make communities healthier. Lastly, remember - Public health nurses solve problems people don't know they have in ways they'll never understand!

Wow! Isn't that amazing! I love how a nursing degree can open the doors to opportunities literally all around the world! If you would like to learn more about Marilyn's work in the Middle East, you can check out her blog: communicatingacrossboundariesblog.com/blog or follow her on Instagram: @communicatingacrossboundaries