Public health nurse circulates through local branch libraries to offer routine health assessments, blood pressure screenings, and health and wellness information. Also provides referrals to additional community services.

Pima County Health Department Library Nurse Program | Pima County Health Department Library Nurse Program

Programs that protect and improve the health of the community through the use of public health nurses whose services are available through departments of public health, schools and voluntary agencies, typically in connection with medical programs supervised by physicians. Activities may include home visits to provide nursing under medical supervision for acutely ill patients and people who are chronically ill; outreach to populations who may not seek out health care through a traditional medical facility; support for physicians in public health clinics and disease detection programs; first aid and screening programs for school children; nutrition counseling; family planning information and a wide range of health education and prevention programs for the community at large which deal with personal health practices that can help to prevent illness.

Public Health Nursing

Programs that measure the pressure existing in the large arteries at the height of a pulse wave and identify individuals whose blood pressure is higher than normal, and who are thereby susceptible to strokes and other conditions that are related to hypertension.

Blood Pressure Screening

Programs that accept cosmetics, shaving utensils, beard trimming equipment, hygienic supplies and other personal care items and keep them for use in their own program or donate them to shelters and other community-based organizations for distribution to the people they serve. Also included are programs that assemble a collection of personal/grooming supplies for women and/or men and make the materials available to people in the community who need them.

Personal/Grooming Supplies Donation Programs

Programs that accept new or secondhand clothing, repair the items if necessary, and keep the clothing for use in their own programs, donate it to shelters and other community-based organizations for distribution to the people they serve, or sell it to raise money for agency programs. These programs accept donations of all types of clothing including children's clothes, work clothes, maternity clothes and shoes rather than specialize in a particular type of clothing.

General Clothing Donation Programs

Health care programs that work with individuals and groups in the community (as opposed to patients) to help them adopt healthy behaviors and/or reduce health risks, increase self-care skills, improve management of common minor ailments, use health care services effectively and/or improve understanding of medical procedures and therapeutic regimens.

Community Wellness Programs

Provides a variety of health services. Includes family planning, communicable disease and sexually transmitted disease (STD) control, adult and childhood immunizations, flu shots, and tuberculosis control.

Navajo County Public Health Services Nursing Services | Navajo County Public Health Services Nursing Services

Programs that control the occurrence of gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes and other infections that are transmitted by sexual contact by monitoring the incidence of the infections in the general population, investigating individual outbreaks, and identifying and screening recent contacts of people who are infected to stop the spread of infections.

Sexually Transmitted Infection Control

Programs that control the occurrence of tuberculosis by monitoring the incidence of the disease in the general population, investigating individual outbreaks and identifying and screening recent contacts of people who are infected to stop the spread of the disease.

Tuberculosis Control

Programs that investigate the causes, characteristics and impact of the occurrence in a community or region of a group of illnesses of a similar nature whose numbers are clearly in excess of normal expectation and are derived from a common source.

Epidemic Investigation

Programs that inoculate susceptible individuals of all ages, but particularly people who are very young or very old, to prevent them from contracting any of the variant strains of influenza that are prevalent during the winter and spring. The vaccine may be administered as a "shot" that is given with a needle, usually in the arm, or in the form of a nasal mist.

Flu Vaccines

Programs that inoculate infants and young children to prevent them from contracting diseases to which they are particularly susceptible including diphtheria, tetanus (lockjaw), measles, mumps, chicken pox (varicella), rubella (German measles), whooping cough (pertussis), Hib (haemophilus influenzae type B), hepatitis B, pneumococcal infections and polio. Hepatitis A vaccine is recommended for use in selected locales and for certain high-risk groups. Influenza vaccine is recommended annually for children older than six months with specific risk factors. Rotavirus vaccination (to prevent acute gastroenteritis with vomiting and severe diarrhea) is recommended during the first year of infancy. A baby should receive two or three doses depending on the brand used. Some childhood immunizations involve a series of doses at specific intervals.

Childhood Immunization

Programs that inoculate the general population to prevent individuals from contracting diseases to which they are particularly susceptible, or to prevent infecting others at greater risk of severe illness, including newborns and young children, people who could become pregnant, older adults, and/or travelers, rather than specializing in a particular type of immunization.