Speed-dating for Public Health Nursing

Background/Issue: Public Health Nursing is a hallmark of baccalaureate nursing education. Unfortunately, public health experiences in nursing education are often limited in both hours and exposure to public health nurses in a variety of roles, especially roles of leadership and management. Description: Faculty in a baccalaureate nursing program designed a speed-dating session to expose nursing students to a variety of public health nurse professionals.  Nurses were recruited from a state health department, as well as from a college’s alumni database, to represent the diverse roles of public health nurses in the public and private sector. Lessons Learned: Both students and nurses participating in the session rated the experience highly. Nurses specifically commented how they wished something like this had been in place when they were students as they never imagined all the opportunities available to them in public health nursing and were excited to share their experiences with the next generation of nurses. The speed-dating format of the panels has been extended to other courses, including a Summer Institute of Nursing designed to expose high schools students to the array of career opportunities available within nursing. Implications/Recommendations: Creative opportunities to expose students at any level to the breadth of career opportunities within public health nursing are incredibly valuable and help promote a future pipeline of public health nursing professionals.