Public Health Nurse Level I​/II

The Position

This is a continuous filing exam. Next filing cut-offs are at 5:00 pm on:

5/19/25, 6/16/25, 7/14/25, 8/18/25, 9/15/25, 10/14/25, 11/17/25, 12/15/25

Level II - $9,429.08 - $11,463.08/month

Note:
Vacancies may be permanent or intermittent on-call (per-diem).

Note:
For additional nursing opportunities please see Registered Nurse DCF Level I/II, Psychiatric Nurse.

Public Health Nurse class has two levels: (Level II) is the full journey level and (Level I) is designed to recruit nurses who do not meet the experience requirements for the full journey level. Incumbents work under the supervision of a Supervising Public Nurse and may receive work direction from a Senior Public Health Nurse, or receive supervision from a higher-level nurse, or receive supervision from a higher-level health program manager with medical direction as needed from a physician or professional nurse, depending on the job assignment.

Examples Of Knowledge And Abilities

• Professional public health nursing principles, procedures and techniques
• State of California laws and regulations on nursing practices
• Normal course of illnesses and disabilities, and their treatment
• Family planning methods
• Pre-natal, pregnancy and post-natal nutrition and medical care
• Infant and child care, growth, and development, including common illnesses
• Case management techniques and the care and treatment of high risk, physically impaired and developmentally disabled infants and children
• Substance abuse symptoms and intervention techniques
• Mental illness symptoms and intervention techniques
• Symptoms, prevention, reporting requirements and treatment of child and adult abuse and neglect
• Normal and abnormal family dynamics
• Basic techniques of organizing and conducting classes and training sessions on a variety of health subjects
• Basic individual and group counseling techniques applicable to public health nursing
• Common public and community health care resources
• Social and economic factors influencing individual and community health
• Differing cultural, religious and social attitudes about hygiene, family planning, child care, and health treatment
• Proper handling and administering of biological items
• Proper handling of contaminated items
• Causes, control, detection, prevention and treatment of common communicable diseases, environmentally based illnesses, sexually transmitted diseases, and food and water-borne illnesses
• Basic procedures for conducting epidemiological investigations
• Standard medical record-keeping

Ability to

• Affectively communicate with and gain the cooperation of clients, and potential clients, of various social, cultural, economic and educational backgrounds
• Work cooperatively with other health and social service providers
• Effectively conduct interviews of patients and families to gain information to evaluate their medical situation
• Determine and apply effective means of intervening in cases of mental illness, and substance abuse
• Conduct and participate in in-service education and training
• Effectively demonstrate and teach care of infants, children, the disabled and chronically ill to individuals in their homes
• Effectively teach public group classes
• Gain cooperation of patients and other individuals in investigating and treating communicable diseases and environmentally based illnesses
• Tolerate unsanitary homes
• Learn and comply with laws, rules, regulations, protocols, and procedures, including security requirements, applicable to the work unit
• Recognize, and avoid or defuse, potentially dangerous situations and hostile people
• Accurately evaluate cases to determine caseload priorities
• Plan routes and schedule in-home visits to make the most effective use of time
• Learn to operate slide and movie projectors, and use other teaching aids
• Maintain patient confidentiality

Employment Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

(Level I) The registration and licensure requirements below.

(Level II) Six months of experience as a licensed/certified Public Health Nurse performing public health nursing duties.

Notes:

• Experience requirements are stated as full-time work; to convert part-time to full-time equivalency: 173.6 hours = 21.7 days = 1 work month.
• Required experience may be paid or unpaid.

General Qualifications

License / Certificate / Registration Requirements:

• All persons appointed to these classes must possess and maintain a current Registered Nurse license and public health nurse specialty certificate issued by the state of California.
• All persons appointed to these classes must possess and maintain a current California driver's license, class III or higher; failure to maintain such license may be cause for disciplinary action in accordance with Civil Service Commission Rules.
• Persons appointed to these classes will be required to have, or obtain, and maintain a valid CPR certificate.

Other Requirements:
Some positions in the classes of Public Health Nurse and Senior Public Health Nurse may require the ability to communicate fluently in a language other than English, in addition to English.

Probationary…