Back to Careers Would you like a career as a Public Health Nurse? • What does a Public Health Nurse do? The public health nurse provides a generalized public health nursing service to communities, aggregates, groups, families and individuals throughout the life cycle for purpose of promotion of health and prevention of illness and injury. There are four components of the public health nurse's role in public health: direct care provider, teacher/educator, consultant and researcher/evaluator. Inherent in this role are the knowledge, skills and attitudes specific to health promotion and illness and injury prevention; this includes the nurse as consultant, educator, community developer, facilitator, advocate, counsellor, communicator, coordinator, collaborator, researcher/evaluator, social marketer and policy formulator. To function in their role, public health nurses use advanced decision-making strategies such as the nursing process combining judgement, action, responsibility, accountability and knowledge of current community health/public health theory, professional nursing and appropriate technology. The role is diverse and multifaceted. Nursing service is provided to clients (individual, group, community) of all ages in a variety of settings. The nurse functions within an interdisciplinary team. The nurse provides primary prevention services. Occasionally secondary or tertiary prevention care may be provided. PHN Education Requirements: Bachelors Degree in Nursing with Community Health Component Current Certificate of Competence from the College of Nurses of Ontario