Cynthia Johnson: Public Health Nursing Careers on the Rise

Cynthia Johnson, RN, Ed.D., was featured in the September 2 issue of WorkingNurse.com in the article “Public Health Nursing.” The professor of nursing at California State University, Dominguez Hills says there is a great demand for public health nurses and that there are plenty of students hoping to fill that need. She estimates that about 90 percent of applicants attending quarterly application workshops for the public health nursing (PHN) program at CSU Dominguez Hills aspire to work for the Los Angeles County health system.

“Some of them are new graduates with a bachelor’s degree and want a change from their [registered nurse] career,” she says.

In the article, Johnson says that through CSU Dominguez Hills’s distance learning public health nurse program students become eligible to apply for their public health nurse certificate given by the Board of Registered Nursing. Individuals with a baccalaureate degree in any field, such as sociology, psychology, biology, or history, who are registered nurses may apply to the PHN program. Courses include work in statistics, research, multicultural concepts, and healthcare policy and finance. CSU Dominguez Hills is one of only five schools in the state that provides a custom program for the registered nurse who is interested in earning a PHN certificate.

Johnson, who worked as a public health nurse in the 1960s in the South Bronx, says that working nurses are often attracted to the field of public nursing because of its “population-based” mission.

“The scope of a public health nurse’s responsibility is the community,” she says. “We’re in an age of prevention. A public health nurse’s emphasis is on prevention, early detection, and [education]. For instance, a mother or premature baby is sent home and they teach them [how to care for their infant] with home visits.”

Johnson received her Master of Science in nursing at CSU Dominguez Hills, her doctorate of education at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, and her Master of Science in community health and health management at Long Island University, New York. Her recent research projects conducted at CSU Dominguez Hills include “Assessing Distance Nursing Students for Clinical Preceptorship Placement: A Project Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator,” “Assessing Transcultural Attitudes towards Diabetes Using the Diabetic Attitude Scale,” and “Incorporating and Evaluating Critical Thinking into Web-based Courses.” She currently serves as the chairs of the School of Nursing’s Curriculum and Awards and Scholarship committees. A scholarship is being established in her name for a nursing graduate student involved in community service who is earning a Bachelor of Science or Master of Science degree.

- Joanie Harmon