Status of state public health nursing leadership in the United States

Public health nursing leaders are a critical component of the executive infrastructure of many state health departments. Top level state health department public health nursing leaders are responsible for the professional practice of public health nursing at the state and local levels. Public health nursing leadership positions in state health departments are essential to assure the availability of an effective PHN workforce. Despite the critical nature of these positions, the infrastructure supporting these positions has eroded over the past decade. In addition to lack of support, retirement is dramatically changed the composition of public health nursing leadership at the state level. State public health nursing directors average more than 30 years service and many are very close to retirement. The Association of State and Territorial Directors of Nursing (ASTDN) is working to enhance the capacity of public health nursing leadership through an Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) Cooperative Agreement funded by the CDC. As part of this project, ASTDN completed a state by state analysis of the status of public health nursing leadership in state health departments. This session will report the findings of that analysis, including:1) states with positions that that specify public health nursing as the primary focus and responsibility, 2) states with positions that include responsibility for public health nursing leadership in addition to other significant responsibilities, 3) states that have eliminated their public health nursing leader positions, 4) states that have eliminated their public health nursing leader positions and then re-established the position, 5) state pubic health nursing leadership positions with staff capacity, 6) states where public health nursing directors have recently or will be retiring 7) states that have additional statutory requirements for public health nurses, 8) ASTDN representation for states that do not have a public health nursing director. The session will discuss the implications of these results and describe ASTDN's strategies for enhancing public health nursing leadership in state health departments in the United States.