Joanne Campbell, RN, PHN passed away peacefully on June 21 after a 5-year battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 91.
Joanne Marilyn Ross Campbell:
June 11, 1931 – June 21, 2022.
Joanne was born at home in Lakeport, California, on June 11, 1931, to Joseph and Anna (Santos) Ross. Soon after, Joanne and family moved to their beloved ranch on Big Valley Road in Finley, California. It was a place where she fondly remembered growing up in the family’s orchards surrounded by siblings Kenneth, Leona (Newman), Lois (Thorne), and Judith (Davidson). She and her sisters also comprised the entire choir at St. Mary’s Church in Lakeport with Joanne eventually taking over piano duties as well.
Joanne, always the stellar student, graduated school in Lakeport at the top of her class receiving a Doyle Scholarship to attend Santa Rosa Junior College. It was there she started her career with a pre-nursing program, graduating in 1952. Upon graduation, she was accepted at both Stanford University and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) nursing schools, choosing UCSF for practical reasons — she would graduate 6 months earlier than the Stanford program with both RN and PHN (Public Health Nurse) degrees. She graduated in 1955. At the end of her nursing internship, she attended a 6-month position at the Queen’s Hospital of Nervous Diseases in London, which began in 1958. This would lead to her lifetime passion for traveling. After the internship, she joined three of her eventual lifelong friends in a Volkswagen bug and toured Europe for 6 months—it was the trip of her life. Upon her return, she turned down a nursing position in Connecticut and accepted a position with the City and County of San Francisco as a Public Health Nurse in 1960. She would make San Francisco her home for the rest of her life.
It was during this time she met her future husband, James (Jim) Campbell, a third-generation San Franciscan. They married in December, 1961. The next chapter of her life began when she gave birth to her oldest son Timothy in 1962, Brian in 1964 (a short move south to Daly City in 1965), and Robert in 1967. Her boys were her pride and joy in life and became her sole focus after the untimely death of Jim in 1973. She raised the three boys by herself in Daly City attending as many baseball, basketball, and band concerts as humanly possible, eventually putting all of them through college. She retired from nursing in 1992, but she did not stay idle for long.
As a tribal citizen of Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, she was elected to the Tribal Council in 1998 where she served multiple terms over 18 years, retiring in 2016 to spend more time with the second love of her life, Young Smith. While serving on the Tribal Council she was passionate about the tribe’s federal restoration, cultural revitalization projects including tribal language learning programs (Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo) and sharing traditional basketry skills.
She served on the initial boards of directors for the California Indian Basketweavers’ Association (CIBA) and the San Francisco Quilting Guild. She was an avid quilter as well as a Giants, 49ers, and Warriors fan throughout her entire life. She was also a great friend, aunt, mother, and grandmother. She never stopped being a nurse and continued to look after and help many families and friends right up until her passing.
She is survived by her three sons, Timothy (Bonnie), Brian (Carla), and Robert (Tina), her sister Leona Newman of Oak Harbor, Washington, as well as her 6 grandchildren (James, Ethan, Kayla, Miles, Emily, Chase), numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, and close friends. A funeral Mass was held at Church of the Good Shepherd in Pacifica, CA on July 7. Private burial will follow at a later date. A Celebration of Life gathering in Sonoma County will be held later this year.
Memorial donations may be made in her name to St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Mateo County at www.svdpsm.org, or 50 North B Street, San Mateo, CA 94401, 650-373-0622.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are hot topics in the healthcare world, but including a DEI module in our yearly education isn’t enough to address these issues. Policy is a valuable tool, but actual change needs to come from a more personal level, from each and every staff member.
Before we can have a meaningful conversation about DEI that might lead us toward significant change, we need to understand the meaning of diversity, equity, and inclusion and why it is important in healthcare.
First, the issues often relate to our biases, especially those so deeply ingrained in our life circumstances that we aren’t aware of them. We can’t advocate for what we don’t understand, and if we don’t advocate for change, we will stay in our “safe” silos, which only strengthens the idea that we are separate and different.
Understanding that we are separate and different and what that means is the first step in making diversity, equity, and inclusion a part of our workspace and nurse recruitment.
Diversity
Diversity is simply including people with different backgrounds. For example, when healthcare systems conduct nurse staffing while considering different cultural, gender, religious, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic backgrounds, the staff benefits from exposure to differences among coworkers, and patients feel more comfortable knowing they aren’t alone.
Our healthcare system has been lacking in diversity from the beginning, and although we’ve seen a lot of progress since the days when only white males could practice medicine, we are far from diverse.
In one study, over 56% of physicians identified as White and 64% as male, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). According to Minority Nurse, about 75% of RNs identify as White, and 91% are female. So if most doctors and nurses are white, most doctors are male, and most nurses are female, who are we really serving?
When we don’t have a common background, it’s easy to make the mistake of seeing the patient through our own lens instead of their reality. Our lenses place them where we want them to be—fully able and capable of taking the steps we want them to take for their health. The outcomes we desire assume the tools, processes, and understanding are within their reach and that they have the same goals we do.
Textbook knowledge can never make up for the lack of diversity in our own lives. And our lack of understanding of our patients’ reality can lead to misunderstanding or errors in care, creating inequity. Hiring a diverse workforce promotes understanding and creates a more comfortable environment for patients and coworkers alike.
Equity
Equity is a concept that often gets confused with equality. In healthcare, equality means giving everybody the same resource or opportunity to achieve their health goals. Equity is recognizing that each person has different circumstances and honoring that by allocating opportunities and resources to allow them to reach an equal outcome.
Simply giving someone an opportunity isn’t enough if they don’t have the means to use it. Equity can only be achieved when nobody is allowed to be disadvantaged due to age, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, geographical background, or socioeconomic status.
Access to life-saving medication is an example of inequity we see every day. A medication that costs hundreds of dollars every month may not be out of reach for someone with superb insurance coverage and a large bank account. For someone whose job doesn’t offer prescription coverage or who doesn’t make a living wage, that life-saving medication is technically available but far out of their reach. Far too many patients fail to fill the prescriptions they need for this reason.
Healthcare policy can promote equity, but we can also change how we treat and educate patients. In our medication example, we could address a patient’s ability to obtain a prescription before they leave the office or hospital. No patient should walk out the door with a prescription they can’t fill.
Inclusion
Inclusion is about deliberately creating a respectful and safe environment for all staff and patients. Inclusion means giving patients and staff a voice in giving and receiving care and encouraging diversity. Healthcare isn’t the place for a one-size-fits-all approach. We must all strive to embrace diversity and promote equity.
Nurses Are Uniquely Positioned to Champion DEI
Nurses may have little say in enacting policy within their healthcare systems but are very likely the first and last staff member a patient sees and the role they interact with most frequently. That close relationship with our patients makes nurses the most important role to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion with our patients, in nursing education, and within our own workspaces.
One of the most essential directives we learned in nursing school may have been to meet patients where they’re at. Let’s add and coworkers to that and, together, we can create a more effective healthcare system that serves all people.
If you experience any of these symptoms, call 911 immediately.
Pain or discomfort in the jaw, neck, or back
Feeling weak, light-headed, or faint
Chest pain or discomfort
Pain or discomfort in arms or shoulder
Shortness of breath
Women also tend to have symptoms that are different from men and, therefore, aren’t always immediately considered as heart trouble.
Watch for these unusual signs:
Nausea or vomiting
Heartburn
Extreme fatigue
Feelings of unease or anxiety
Heart disease isn’t called the silent killer for no reason. If you feel something is off, whether that’s occasional chest pain with exercise or under stress, heart palpitations, or off-and-on chest discomfort, always be cautious and get it checked.
Reduce Your Risk
If you have risk factors for heart disease, you should monitor your blood pressure, your cholesterol, and your blood sugar. Try to reduce your risk by maintaining a healthy weight, getting enough physical activity, being sure to rest, staying connected with loved ones, and trying to keep your stress levels in check.
With the hectic pace of a nurse’s day, getting any time to bring your stress down a notch is a struggle. But one simple way to help with stress reduction is to step outside. Plenty of research backs up the idea that more time outside is better for your health. A few minutes walking at lunch, parking far enough away in a parking lot, or even just getting a few breaths of fresh air on a break can have huge benefits on your physical health and your mental health. Getting into nature can clear your mind, lower your blood pressure, and help you clear out the mental clutter enough to focus better when you come back to work.
Heart disease is the number-one killer of men and women in the United States, so paying attention to your own heart health is one of the best preventative measures you can take.
I fondly remember sitting in the waiting room for a scholarship that was offered to African American students to be of use for academic endeavors. I was waiting to be interviewed. However, I remember not feeling nervous and feeling confident that I would be able to answer any questions they may have for me. This surprised me then and surprises me now as an adult. At the aforementioned time, I was only 17 years of age and a senior in high school. There was one question, though, that I did not anticipate as I sat in a room of nurse leaders.
They asked me, “As a young African American like yourself, what do you see as the barriers to your success?”
I just looked one of the interviewers square in the eye and stated, “There are no barriers, from my point of view.”
I’ll never forget the interviewers being so shell-shocked. I do not think they expected this answer.
I explained, “Barriers are what we perceive them to be. If I do not perceive any, they simply do not exist.”
Now, as an African American nurse who has attained her baccalaureate and master’s degrees and is currently working on her doctorate, I see the importance of this idea in my life. The brain can perceive many things, and they may not necessarily be real. This has been proven true again and again in the perception of illusions, or tricks of the eye. The same proves true in the outlook of minority nursing students today. Merriam Webster confirms that constructs are the things created by the mind or the product of ideology, history, or social circumstances. You must remember that barriers to success are simply constructs, only true if you choose to accept them into your reality. Such barriers may come in the form of racism, a challenging nursing course, financial troubles, or other adversities. There may be difficulties, but there are always ways to overcome these difficulties as one strives to complete an entry-level nursing program or pursue an advanced degree in nursing.
I was awarded that scholarship. And to think, it was attributed to a positive idea that my mind constructed. As a result of this positive idea, I was able to have a generous contribution made toward my baccalaureate degree. Yes, my positivity was a source of success and continues to propel me forward in this great profession. Do not let constructs of the mind hold you back in achieving your own elaborate dream of success.
The origins of the 55,000 member Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina are unclear. Many think the Lumbee are descendants of Sir Walter Raleigh’s Roanoke Island “Lost Colonists” of 1587, the first permanent English settlers in North America. A new group of settlers arrived on Roanoke Island in 1590 to replenish supplies and grow the colony. However, when they arrived, the fort was deserted and all they found was the word “Croatoan” carved into a tree. According to this theory, sometime between 1587 and 1590, the settlers moved to another island or mainland location called “Croatoan.” The idea continues that the English colonists settled among and intermarried with the friendly Croatan Indians, and by 1650 the tribe migrated to the area in and near present-day Robeson County, North Carolina. The ancestors of the Lumbee were mainly Cheraw and related Siouan-speaking Indians who have lived in the vicinity of Robeson County since the 1700s. The Lumbee have been recognized as a Native American tribe since 1885 by the state of North Carolina, although they have yet to receive federal recognition. They take their name from the Lumbee River, which winds its way through their ancestral lands.
For the first half of the twentieth century, North Carolina laws called for triple segregation—separate schools for African American, Lumbee, and white students, with African American and Lumbee schools far inferior in funding, equipment, and general support to white schools. Lumbee were also frequently discriminated against in employment, housing, recreation, and health until the 1960s. Despite these hardships, a few young Lumbee women were determined to become nurses. All of the early Lumbee nurses went out of state to receive their nursing education; a few returned to help their neighbors and families. Here are their stories.
THE EARLIEST KNOWN LUMBEE REGISTERED NURSES
Viola E. Lowry Armstrong is the first known Lumbee registered nurse. She was born on June 25, 1897 in the crossroads community of Elrod in Robeson County, North Carolina, to Henry H. and Julia Revels Lowry. Shortly after graduating from Wesleyan College in Athens, Tennessee in 1918, Armstrong enrolled in the Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing (KGHSON). According to KGHSON historian Billie McNamara, Armstrong was the first Native American nurse to enroll at the school. She graduated in 1923 and soon married William Franklin Armstrong, a local businessman. The couple had a son in 1926 followed by a daughter two years later. The Armstrongs spent their lives in Knoxville where Nurse Armstrong managed family responsibilities along with a part-time, private duty nursing career until her retirement at age 75.
Two of Armstrong’s first cousins, sisters Lorraine C. LowryEvans and Lessie Lowry Blakeslee, followed Mrs. Armstrong into nursing. Evans was the sixth of eight children born to the Reverend Doctor Fuller and Jessie Mae Hatcher Lowry on January 22, 1916 in Robeson County, North Carolina. Shortly after graduating from the nursing program at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, she married a local man, John Robert Evans, in June, 1938. Her life was cut short when she died of breast cancer in 1957. Her Nashville death certificate lists her occupation as a registered nurse and her place of employment as Gordon Hospital.
Lessie Lowry Blakeslee was the third of eight children born to Reverend Doctor Fuller and Jessie Mae Hatcher Lowry in 1912. She graduated from Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing and later became a U.S. Army nurse. She lived in several parts of the country before dying in Nebraska in 1954.
Another early Lumbee registered nurse was Bertha Locklear Berkheimer. She was born on September 4, 1908 in Robeson County, North Carolina to Reverend Peppers Mahoney Locklear and Mary Catherine Hunt Locklear. After graduating from Pembroke High School she went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to pursue her nursing education. By 1940 she was living in Philadelphia, married to Jessie Berkheimer, was mother to a son and daughter, and was a nursing supervisor at the Philadelphia State [Psychiatric] Hospital. She lived in Philadelphia until her death in 1981.
Velma Mae Lowry Maynor: Community Health Nurse
The first Lumbee registered nurse to return to Robeson County after graduating from nursing school was Velma Mae Lowry Maynor. She was born on September 9, 1907 to Edmond and Sally Hatcher Lowry. After graduating from what is now the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNC-P) with a teaching certificate, Maynor taught school for a few years in Robeson County. By the late 1920s, Maynor pursued her calling to become a nurse and entered the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing. After graduating in 1933, Maynor worked for four and a half years at the Philadelphia General Hospital as a medical floor supervisor.
The Great Depression of the 1930s led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish many new government programs, policies, and agencies to help the poor and unemployed across the country. These new initiatives were known collectively as the New Deal.
As part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration—and beginning in 1935, the Resettlement Administration—helped to establish homestead communities that encouraged landownership and, in many cases, fostered agricultural skills. In North Carolina, the resettlement projects were rural farming homesteads. The idea behind the homesteads was that the settlers would rehabilitate the land and learn valuable agricultural and subsistence skills (Tillery Farms historic marker).
Robeson County was selected as a site for a farming homestead project, called Pembroke Farms, specifically created for Lumbee people. Each family who lived at Pembroke Farms had a modest house and 11 acres of land. Once the farm was in working order, the homesteader could purchase the land through the federal government. Pembroke Farms had its own school, community center, and several staff on hand to assist with agricultural practices, homemaking skills, and health. The only full-time, permanent, Lumbee employed at Pembroke Farms was Mrs. Maynor, the nurse. According to Malinda Maynor Lowery, historian of the Lumbee people and author of Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation, “her duties centered on curbing the area’s malaria, tuberculosis, syphilis, and other diseases through treatment and education.”
Several articles in the local newspaper, The Robesonian, note Nurse Maynor’s activities during the four years she worked at Pembroke Farms (1939-1943). The first, on September 8, 1941, mentions that she is teaching a home nursing course at Pembroke State College (now UNC-P), a course she would repeatedly offer to the community during the WWII years. A month later, she judged several exhibits at the Pembroke Fair. The newspaper reports her extensive involvement with the 4-H club and her service on the Board of Directors of Odum Home, an orphanage for Indian children.
World War II brought an end to most New Deal programs, including Pembroke Farms. Many men were serving in the military and jobs were more plentiful. Nurse Maynor’s job at Pembroke Farms ended. She worked as a night nurse at the N.C. Cancer Center in nearby Lumberton from 1952 until 1966 when she became a school nurse for Robeson County. Again, The Robesonian often described her activities during the seven years she cared for the school children. Maynor and the other schools’ nurses screened children for vision, spinal, dental, and other common childhood health problems and made sure all the children received proper care. Maynor’s obituary states that she was also the first nurse to serve the Robeson County Department of Corrections. After a lifetime of caring for her community, Maynor died on November 18, 1997, at the age of 90.
Eva B. Sampson: Student Health/Infirmary Nurse
Another nurse who dedicated her life to her Robeson County community was Mrs. Eva Brewington Sampson, RN. She was born on July 31, 1932 to Clyde and Lillie Mae Brewington. She was one of the earliest nursing graduates from Southeastern Community College, earning her Associate Degree in Nursing in 1968. After working two years at Southeastern General Hospital, Sampson became the Director of Student Health Services at UNC-P. While working in the student health center she earned her bachelor’s degree majoring in psychology and sociology. During Sampson’s 25-year tenure at UNC-P, she was involved with the students and campus life. She served as an adviser to the Tri-Sigma Sorority and established the John W. (Ned) Sampson endowed scholarship, to assist deserving young athletes in paying for their schooling. Mrs. Sampson was also active in her profession and her community. She was an active member of the NC State Nurses Association, a Cub Scouts Den Mother, and a volunteer for the Pembroke Rescue Squad and the Caregiver Support group. She served on the Board of Directors for the Southeastern Regional Medical Center, Hospice of Robeson County, the Lady’s Lion Club, the Professional and Business Women’s Club of Pembroke and was active in her church’s Women’s Mission Union. In addition to her employment and volunteer activities, Sampson had a devoted husband and raised three daughters and a son. She passed away on January 11, 2014.
PRESENT DAY
With the passage of state and federal laws outlawing racial segregation and ensuring equal rights for Native Americans, Lumbee people have earned degrees from a variety of nursing schools and become nursing leaders. Today, two of the most prominent Lumbee nurse leaders are Bobby Lowery, PhD, RN, MN, FNP-BC, FAANP, and Cherry Maynor Beasley, PhD, MS, FNP, RN, CNE. Their admirable accomplishments inspire today’s young nurses, both Lumbee and non-Lumbee, to excel in their profession.
Bobby Lowery is a native of Robeson County and a member of the Lumbee Tribe. With over 30 years combined nursing experience as a family nurse practitioner, health policy advocate and educator, he holds a BSN and PhD in Nursing from East Carolina University and a Master of Nursing from Emory University. Lowery retired at the rank of Captain after twenty years of service as a Commissioned Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. He developed, implemented, and directed the inaugural DNP Program at East Carolina University College of Nursing where his work with the virtual community clinic learning environment is the foundation for $2,197,446 in funding for Interprofessional Education. A respected leader, he has served on the North Carolina Nurses Association Board of Directors, chaired the NP Executive Committee, and was appointed as the inaugural chair of the Commission for Advanced Practice Nursing. Lowery also served on the Board of Directors for the NC Board of Nursing where he has chaired the NP Joint Subcommittee, Education and Practice Committee and the Midwifery joint committee. Nationally, he chaired the NCSBN Distance Education Committee and is a past AANP State Representative. Lowery’s research on NP regulation expands nursing knowledge and informs stakeholders regarding the need for evidence-based NP regulation and interprofessionalism in health care. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Currently, he serves a Nursing Practice Consultant-NP for the NC Board of Nursing where he participates in proposed recommendations on actions relating to regulation of nursing practice for consideration by the Board and serves on the Senior Staffing Practice Committee and Research Committee. Lowery is currently participating in a one-year fellowship program with the American Nursing Advocacy Institute where he is focusing on full-practice authority for Advanced Practice Nurses in North Carolina.
Cherry Beasley is the Anne R. Belk Endowed Professor for Rural and Minority Health at UNC-P. She earned her BSN in 1973 from the University of Michigan, a MS in Nursing and Public Health Nursing at UNC-Chapel Hill, a post-master’s FNP from the University of South Carolina, and her PhD in 2009 from East Carolina University. Beasley is the first Lumbee to have earned a baccalaureate, masters, and doctor of philosophy all in nursing. Her areas of expertise are cultural role in health care decision making, rural health, diabetes, nursing workforce issues, and women’s health. Beasley is a member and leader in numerous nursing organizations, including the American Nurses Association, the North Carolina Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau, and the National League for Nursing, and Delta Omega. She is the past chair of the NC Center for Nursing. Beasley has successfully written and administered many grants and is the author of numerous articles. A generation of nursing students have benefited from her dedication to and excellence in nursing education. She continues to live and work in her native homeland where she serves on several local boards and has recently been selected as the first Secretary of Health for the Lumbee Tribe.
LOOKING FORWARD
Lumbee nurses’ contributions to nursing have been overlooked in the literature. Despite being a relatively small, federally unrecognized tribe, and having suffered racial discrimination and segregation for most of their history, the Lumbee Tribe has produced several outstanding nurses. These nurses have both provided care to vulnerable people under difficult circumstances and enhanced the nursing profession. Their lives and work should not be forgotten.
Acknowledgments. Both Cherry Beasley and Bobby Lowery were invaluable in writing this article. Through conversations and draft revisions each has improved the accuracy of this piece. Any errors are mine alone.
Careers in government nursing are as varied as nursing careers in the private sector. However, when many nurses hear “government nursing,” they may assume that means working for a veterans hospital. But the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) is only one of many government agencies where skilled nurses who want to work for the government can build their careers.
In fact, there are a variety of government agencies and positions where nurses can put their skills to work, including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Indian Health Service (IHS), the U.S. Army, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Think a government career might be a good fit for you? Keep reading for stories from nurses who work for the government and tips on how you can too.
Military nursing takes sacrifice
“The army’s been very good to my family,” says Lt. Col. Christopher Weidlich, U.S. Army, who is currently finishing his Ph.D. in nursing at the University of Miami on a U.S. Army Long-Term Health and Education Training Scholarship (scheduled to graduate in 2013). He has served in the military for 17 years. “I really enjoy taking care of people, and doing whatever I can to help them out.”
When Lt. Col. Weidlich graduated from high school in 1990, his original goal was to become a doctor. “I wanted to go to medical school, but I didn’t have the grades to support it,” he says. “When I graduated from high school, I found out the Army was offering nursing scholarships.”
He went on to graduate from the University of Miami in 1994 on an Army ROTC scholarship and decided to stay in the military after graduation. He worked as an army psychiatric nurse and a psychiatric mental health nurse in various locations, including Nebraska, Georgia, Kentucky, and North Carolina, in addition to Iraq and South Korea.
After several deployments, Lt. Col. Weidlich feels that while military life comes with unique challenges, he has enjoyed his career. “Being a military family has its ups and downs like any profession, but it’s hard on my kids,” says the father of four.
Despite the personal sacrifices, Lt. Col. Weidlich says his career so far has been a very rewarding experience for him and his family, and advises other nurses considering military nursing careers: “If you go into the military, take advantage of your education,” he stresses. “There are a lot of schools that you could go to within the Army. I would recommend you take any educational opportunities that are there.”
Careers with government agencies
Nurses seeking a more stable lifestyle will find an abundance of opportunities within government agencies. Many have built their careers in the government, like Dinora Dominguez, Chief of Patient Recruitment and a public liaison in the Office of Communications at the NIH Clinical Center, Department of Health and Human Services. Dominguez has worked for the NIH since she graduated from college in 1986.
Finding a Government Job Michael Roberts, government careers expert for About.com, provides answers to common questions for nurses interested in applying for government jobs.What is the best way to look for openings for nurses who are interested in working for a government agency?
You do not need to go to a third-party website to find government jobs. Your best bet is to go straight to government sites since these opportunities are posted online. All federal government agencies post job openings on USAJobs.gov. Each state has a similar job portal, but local government jobs are a bit harder to find. You need to go to each jurisdiction’s website. Also, professional associations can be helpful in finding jobs at all levels.Is applying for a government position much different than applying for jobs in the private sector?
Government hiring processes tend to be more formalized than private sector employers. However, hiring processes for nurses should be similar given the licensing requirements placed on nurses by state governments. The biggest difference applicants will see is that it takes much longer for government organizations to hire as opposed to private companies.
Any tips on résumés and cover letters?
With government organizations, the most important document is the job application form. There are even government job portals that do not allow applicants to add attachments to their applications. The application form forces applicants to tell the organization what it wants to know: résumés, cover letters, and the like allow the applicant to tell the organization what he or she wants to know.
Should applicants be prepared for a more difficult overall process in terms of background checks, qualifications, interviews, etc.?
Not really. Both companies and government organizations will do due diligence on people they intend to hire.
Dominguez always held an interest in doing research and was attracted to the NIH due to the research involved in her position. Today, she coordinates clinical trials and educates the public on the importance of participating in clinical trials—something she’s passionate about.
Bruce Steakley, R.N., B.S.N., a nurse manager in pediatric and adult inpatient behavioral health at the Ambulatory Care Behavioral Health Clinic (NIH), has a career that spans 30 years. He first came to the NIH six years ago.
“After working in community-based mental health inpatient settings and one outpatient setting for all those years, I got discouraged with psychiatry and the state of mental health care delivery in the country,” Steakley says. “So I left and tried other avenues of nursing, but was bored. And so I always returned to mental health and discovered my current position by word of mouth. A friend of my wife told me about this job and I decided to apply for it and now, here I am.”
Clifton J. Kenon Jr., M.S.N., R.N.C.-O.B., C.-E.F.M., I.B.C.L.C., R.L.C., A.W.H.O.N.N., fetal monitoring instructor and maternal-child health nurse consultant at Indian Health Service, found his way to the IHS by posting his résumé on the USAJobs.gov website. “I was recruited to go work for the Indian Health Service as a maternal child health consultant in South Dakota in April of 2011,” he recalls. “And in this role, I’m actually able to have an influence and to lead maternal health programs for the Indian Health Service for our four-state region: North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska.”
Steakley also applied through the USAJobs.gov website, which he says is the best place for nurses interested in a government job to go. “I occasionally have people who somehow reach me on the phone and want to apply for a job,” he says. “I step way back from that and just refer them directly to USAJobs.gov. There’s a structure for applying, and I follow the structure.”
Steakley notes that nurses seeking to gain entry with a government agency should bring patience to their job search.
Resources for Your Career Search How to Find Government Jobs Online: http://govcareers.about.com/od/JobSearch/a/How-To-Find-Government-Jobs-Online.htm
Job Boards for All 50 States: http://govcareers.about.com/od/JobSearch/tp/Job-Boards-For-All-50-States.htm
Tips for Completing Government Job Applications: http://govcareers.about.com/od/JobSearch/a/Tips-For-Completing-Government-Job-Applications.htm
“The hiring process is longer and slower, but somewhat more professional,” he says. “I was here on three different occasions, interviewing with three different sets of people. My sense was that they were looking for highly qualified people. I’ve since had opportunities to participate in a number of interviews with nurse manager candidates and clinical manager candidates. Over the years, I’ve hired a lot of people myself, and I think that although I see room for improving the process, I would nevertheless maintain it’s better here than in other settings.”
If you desire to make a leap from the private sector to the government sector, Kenon’s advice is to actively seek out opportunities, put yourself out there, and post your résumé on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (www.opm.gov) and USAJobs.gov websites.
“Continue searching for openings that would meet your qualifications or are willing to train, and call regional recruiters. Most government agencies have recruiters that are actively recruiting new talent to the agency,” he says, adding that recruiters love to hear from those interested in public sector careers. “[They] have unique and challenging opportunities for nurses that want to serve their country.”
Government work culture
Is working for the government much different than the private sector? Some nurses who have experience in both sectors note some differences.
Kenon was a labor and delivery nurse at Duke University Medical Center and the University of Virginia. “The difference between working in the private sector and public sector is being a public servant, as I like to see myself in working for the government. I am helping to fulfill the mission of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. And I’m helping to serve the American people with health care on a national level, as opposed to in the private sector where I was more concerned with serving a local aggregate of people or a specific community.”
Steakley, who worked for various community-based facilities before joining the NIH, says that he feels more supported as a government employee, adding that he has a lot of reinforcement from the three units he manages in terms of clinical management, clinical educators, and clinical nurse specialists. “That allows me to have a slightly more elevated role,” he says, which removes him from the “nitty-gritty” of direct patient care, and enables him to be more involved in management and “setting the philosophy, growth, and performance improvement plans for the unit.”
For Kenon, working for the IHS has changed his whole perspective on nursing. “As an African American nurse, being a public servant and working within the United States Government, it has given me a clearer picture and a greater professional identity for the role that nursing has in leading health care on a national and global level,” Kenon says. “Now, I see what an invaluable role nurses play all across the government with legislative change, translating change into practices, and actually being leaders for the health care delivery system.”
Abundant opportunities
If you think a career in the government is a good fit for you, Dominguez encourages other minority nurses to pursue it because there is a wide array of positions available—not just on the clinical side. She says there are many opportunities for nurses to “think outside the box.” As you start researching for a job, Dominguez says to think of the specific skills that you can bring to the role, and just go for it.
Kenon says a government nursing career is all about dedication. For nurses considering these jobs, his advice is to make sure they have solidified a mission in nursing and the core values of the profession.
“Whether you’re in the private sector or public sector, core values such as caring, innovation, passion, and diversity are going to need to be deeply imbedded in each individual nurse’s philosophy to have a successful career in government,” he says.
Most of all, Kenon believes nurses considering such a career should know that they will be dedicating their career and lives to serving the American people. “That is a calling not to be taken lightly,” he adds.
Once you get your foot in the door, opportunities are abundant for growth, Steakley says. “They’re all around. I think that the nursing leadership and the medical leadership in the clinical center are very supportive of intellectual growth of nurses,” he says. “So I think just getting one’s foot in the door is the hardest part.”
Kenon sees himself building a long-term career as a government nurse. “In five to 10 years, I certainly see myself continuing to serve the American people and hopefully continuing to work within maternal child health,” he says. “I love working for the Indian Health Service and I love serving the Native American and the Alaska Native people. And certainly, within 10 years, I still hope to be leading the maternal child health program within the Indian Health Service.”
Joanne Marilyn Ross Campbell:
