Key Findings:
- There is significant need to strengthen the education and training of public health nurses.
- Providing clinical services is part of the work done by RNs in state and local health departments, but these nurses assume a wide variety of roles.
- The national public health nurse workforce in state and local health departments is not as racially and ethnically diverse as the country’s population. Further, few minority public health nurses serve in leadership positions.
- The public health nurse workforce is aging; however, most RNs do not intend to retire within the next five years.
- Public health nurses report high levels of job satisfaction, despite reporting high levels of dissatisfaction with salary compensation.
