Public health nurses work in a wide range of settings, from local government health departments to schools, correctional facilities, international agencies, and even remote telehealth positions. They are the single largest group of public health practitioners in U.S. state and local health departments, but their reach extends well beyond government offices. Here’s a breakdown of the most common workplaces and what the role looks like in each.
Local and State Health Departments
Government health departments are the traditional home base for public health nurses. At the local level, they staff county and city health departments across more than 2,500 jurisdictions nationwide. At the state level, every state health department employs or contracts registered nurses to carry out public health functions. Day-to-day work in these settings includes conducting communicable disease investigations, running immunization clinics, performing health screenings, and connecting residents with social services.
Federal agencies also employ public health nurses. The CDC, the Indian Health Service, and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps all hire nurses for roles in disease surveillance, health education, and program management. Government nursing roles tend to pay well: the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median annual wage of $106,480 for registered nurses in government positions (excluding state and local education and hospitals) as of May 2024, the highest among major employment sectors for RNs.
Schools and Universities
School nursing is one of the most visible forms of public health nursing. Nurses in K-12 schools screen students for vision, hearing, posture, and weight concerns. They track immunization records for the entire student body, report communicable diseases like tuberculosis as required by law, and conduct broader health assessments to catch issues early. Beyond clinical tasks, school nurses promote healthy environments by advising on topics like nutrition, hygiene, and mental health.
Registered nurses working in educational services earned a median of $74,360 per year as of May 2024, lower than many other nursing settings but often offset by school-year schedules and benefits packages.
Community Health Centers and Nonprofits
Federally qualified health centers, free clinics, and nonprofit organizations hire public health nurses to serve populations that face barriers to care. In these settings, nurses blend clinical work with community outreach. They might run blood pressure screenings at a neighborhood center in the morning and do home visits with new mothers in the afternoon. The focus is on prevention, education, and connecting people with the resources they need before a health problem becomes a crisis.
These roles often involve collaboration with healthcare administrators, social workers, and local government officials. Nurses in ambulatory healthcare services, a category that includes many community clinics, earned a median salary of $83,780 in 2024.
Correctional Facilities
Jails, prisons, and juvenile detention centers are a significant but often overlooked workplace for public health nurses. Correctional health covers the full arc of someone’s contact with the justice system, from arrest through incarceration and reentry into the community. Nurses in these settings screen incoming detainees for infectious diseases, manage chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, coordinate mental health referrals, and help with discharge planning so people leaving custody can continue their care.
Infectious disease surveillance is a core part of the job. The CDC works with health departments to investigate outbreaks inside facilities and monitor cases of HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis among incarcerated populations and the staff who work alongside them.
Emergency and Disaster Response
When a natural disaster, disease outbreak, or bioterrorism event occurs, public health nurses are among the first responders deployed. Their duties during emergencies are broad and fast-moving: they conduct communicable disease investigations, administer vaccines and medications at mass clinics, triage patients at neighborhood emergency help centers, and staff evacuation shelters. During disease outbreaks, they interview people who may have been exposed, track the spread of illness through surveillance systems, and help coordinate the public health agency’s response.
The role also has a significant emotional dimension. Public health nurses assess community members and fellow responders for signs of acute stress, anxiety, depression, and grief, making referrals for mental health support when needed. They communicate with what emergency planners call “the worried well,” people who aren’t sick but need reliable information and reassurance. Some of these positions are full-time roles within emergency management agencies, while others activate public health nurses from their regular jobs when a crisis hits.
International and Global Health Organizations
Public health nurses with an interest in global work can find positions with organizations like the World Health Organization, USAID-funded programs, and international nursing consortiums. The WHO estimates roughly 29 million nurses work worldwide, though nurses remain underrepresented in global health leadership. International roles might involve managing vaccination campaigns, training local health workers, responding to infectious disease outbreaks in low-resource settings, or contributing to health policy development.
Universities with global health programs also send nursing faculty and students abroad through partnerships. UCSF’s collaboration with the AMPATH Consortium in Kenya is one example of how academic nursing programs connect to on-the-ground public health work in other countries.
Telehealth and Remote Positions
The expansion of telehealth has created a growing category of remote public health nursing jobs. Nearly all federally qualified health centers now use telehealth in some form, and nurses fill critical roles in that infrastructure. Remote public health nurses conduct telephone triage, determining what level of care a caller needs without an in-person visit. They educate patients about managing chronic conditions, coordinate care across multiple providers, and follow up with people who might otherwise fall through the cracks.
Contact tracing during infectious disease outbreaks is another remote function that gained visibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Training programs and certifications focused specifically on telehealth nursing cover skills like motivational interviewing, virtual patient education, and remote care coordination. These positions offer flexibility that traditional settings don’t, making them appealing to nurses seeking nontraditional schedules or those in rural areas without nearby public health employers.
How Pay Varies by Setting
Where you work as a public health nurse significantly affects your salary. The Bureau of Labor Statistics breaks down 2024 median wages for registered nurses by industry:
- Government (non-education, non-hospital): $106,480
- Hospitals (state, local, and private): $97,260
- Ambulatory healthcare services: $83,780
- Nursing and residential care facilities: $81,820
- Educational services: $74,360
These figures cover all registered nurses, not only those with public health titles, but they give a reliable sense of how compensation shifts across settings. Government roles consistently pay the most, while school-based positions sit at the lower end. Nonprofit and community health center salaries generally fall somewhere in between, varying widely by location and funding.