Scopes of utilization of public health specialist nurses in government health care service of Bangladesh

The nursing profession is undoubtedly a very important part of health care service. Public Health Nurses use their specialized knowledge, experience, and skill set to initiate life-saving measures, improve and promote the health and well-being. This study was aimed to find out the scopes of utilization of public health specialist nurses, their socio-demographic characteristics, expectations, training status and satisfaction in government health care service. The study was descriptive cross-sectional study. Data was collected though semi structured questionnaire by direct interviewing, telephone interviewing and e-mailing among 127 respondents who had completed their MPH degree from NIPSOM and engaged in government service for minimum 3 years. Among 127 of respondents 81% was female and 19% was male and highest number of respondents 34.6% belongs to the age among 41- 45 years. Majority (78%) of the respondents gave opinion that they had no professional utilization as PHN in the government health sector. About 73.2% of respondents agreed that can getting scope to utilize their MPH educational knowledge in their working area, and most of them (83.9%) opined that they can utilize their knowledge in health education. Maximum 58.3% respondents completed MPH with the hope of becoming nursing teacher. Though 58% of respondents were giving clinical nursing service and among them 40.9% of respondents remained in same position after completing higher education. The 76% of respondents expected from central authority for the specialization of public health nursing post (DPHN) and they also wanted to more working scope in public health sector like upazila level to central level. About 59.8% of respondents didn’t get any training for their professional skill development and 67.7% were not satisfied in their present working position. Without utilizing PHSN properly health sector will remain incomplete. So, the study will help to create an opportunity to think about utilizing public health specialist nurses and for achieving different post need to create in every tire of health.