Health Department Nurse: Keep Up With Vaccines

By ALYSSA HARVEY, The Daily News, aharvey@bgdailynews.com
Article Source: BGDailyNews.com

When Susan Rice was considering careers, nursing wasn’t her first choice.

In fact, she had an art degree from Western Kentucky University. But art jobs were hard to find in southcentral Kentucky.

“The only job offers I got were from out of state,” she said. “My husband and I didn’t want to leave Bowling Green.”

After her husband was diagnosed with an illness, Rice thought a nursing degree would help them both. So she returned to Western to earn an associate degree in nursing.

“I was nervous about it at first,” she said of returning to school. “I had always enjoyed biology and had had a lot of classes in biology.”

Rice is now a community health nurse and clinic manager at the Barren River District Health Department, where she has worked for nearly 15 years. Besides helping keep the different clinics in order, she gets to rotate through them, including those for the women, infants and children nutrition program, tuberculosis, family planning and well child.

“Each of the nurses are cross-trained,” she said. “We do something different every day.”

One part of her career that is close to her heart is immunizations. She has been reminding people that next week is National Infant Immunization Week.

“I love kids,” she said. “I don’t want to see them hurting and sick.”

While the health department has a good rate of vaccination for children, less than 10 percent of adults keep up with their immunizations, Rice said. She encourages adults to make sure their vaccines are current, too.

“Adult immunizations are part of keeping children healthy,” she said. “It keeps them from bringing diseases home to their children.”

While pursuing her nursing degree, Rice worked in The Medical Center’s pediatrics unit. She continued working there for about three years.

Rice has worked in various parts of the health department. At first, she was a traveling nurse going to each of the eight counties in the health department’s coverage area. Next, she was contracted out as a school nurse for Dishman-McGinnis Elementary School for five years. She was an educator on the health department’s health promotion team before a need was expressed for more nurses in the local clinic. She has worked in the clinic for four years.

“There’s so much diversity in nursing,” she said

Rice said she enjoys many aspects of her career, but her favorites are her co-workers and clients.

“I work with a great group of people,” she said. “The clients are just awesome.”