St. Lucie County, FL – The Florida Department of Health wishes to celebrate and thank Florida nurses during National Nurses Week. Florida’s more than 600,000 nursing professionals work every day to provide high quality care in a variety of settings from hospitals to doctors’ offices to county health departments and schools.

“Public health nursing is a specialty practice with a focus on improving population health by emphasizing prevention, and attending to multiple determinants of health. It’s often used interchangeably with community health nursing which includes advocacy, policy development, planning and addressing issues of social justice. We here in St. Lucie have a commitment to health equity, the attainment of the highest level of health for all people,” said Clint Sperber, Health Officer for the Florida Department of Health in St. Lucie County.

Nursing is a huge part of the public health workforce and the training nurses receive in school gives them the skills needed to successfully improve public health. Public health nurses work with individuals, families and communities as a whole to prevent disease and promote the overall health of the area. They work in clinics to provide immunizations, conduct testing for diseases and infections, help people manage chronic conditions like diabetes and asthma and help people achieve a healthy lifestyle. Public health nurses also help communities prepare for natural disasters and assist in disaster relief efforts. Public health nurses are on the front lines every day in their communities and they are the backbone of public health.

“This year’s theme for nurse’s week is Nursing: The Balance of Mind, Body, and Spirit. This is an absolute perfect theme for Public Health Nursing. As public health nurses, we incorporate the holistic nursing experience in almost every client, situation, or challenge that we encounter. We have a passion to embrace our clients as a whole; we not only look at their health status, but we observe and engage in their environment because we know that their health will only improve when we connect with them on a meaningful level. This connection that is created by nurses is often times, life changing both for the client and for ourselves. The ability to create these connections is a gift that each nurse possesses. Their compassion, tenacity, and intelligence do not go unnoticed or unappreciated,” said Angela Roberson, Director of Nursing for the Florida Department of Health in St. Lucie County.

Our public health nurses continue to work diligently with our family planning and women’s health program, immunizing our children and providing a care plan development along with nursing assessments, health screenings for vision, hearing and scoliosis in school settings. Public health nurses are educating our teens about right choices and working to reduce infant mortality every day.