Search for Schools and/or
 

Become an Occupational Health Nurse

Learn about the many opportunities for occupational health nurses.
Find Nursing Schools | Nursing School Education Resource Center

The Basics: Occupational Health Nurse

What you'll do: An occupational health nurse (OHN) specializes in promoting health and safety practices in the work place. Bringing their health care expertise and business knowledge to a wide range of work environments, occupational health nurses deliver health and safety programs and services that help prevent illness, injury and environmental hazards inside organizations.

Minimum degree you'll need to practice: Bachelor's degree in Nursing

Certification: Certification is not currently required but the American Board for Occupational Health Nurses (ABOHN) offers certification for nurses who meet specific eligibility requirements.

Average annual salary: $65,903

Cities where jobs are often found: New York, Tampa, Durham, Phoenix and Las Vegas

 
find clinical nurse specialist programs

Occupational Health Nurse Career Overview

occupational health nurse

Occupational health nurses perform a wide range of job duties, from workplace hazard detection to case management. Typical activities for occupational health nurse jobs include mentoring and training co-workers, counseling employees on health and wellness, designing disease-prevention programs and ensuring compliance with government regulations for workplace safety.

As a career, occupational health nursing promises diverse opportunities, with OHNs making their living as clinicians, educators, corporate directors and consultants.

 
find clinical nurse specialist programs

Occupational Health Nursing Education

Occupational health nurses are registered nurses (RNs) with experience in community health, ambulatory or critical care, or emergency nursing.

Typically, OHNs hold a 4-year bachelor's degree in nursing and gain experience as occupational health nurses before entering the field. Many decide to go back to school to earn their Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) with a specialty in public health or a related field. Others may choose to earn a master's degree in a business-related field.

Currently, working in an occupational health nurse job does not require specialized certification. But the AAOHN highly recommends that OHNs obtain certification as a means of demonstrating professional competency and a commitment to continuous training.

 
find clinical nurse specialist programs

Occupational Health Nursing Career Outlook

Registered nurses in general can anticipate an excellent job outlook due to the current nursing shortage. Not only will the occupation generate 587,000 new jobs, but hundreds of thousands of additional openings will become available as a result of retirements and natural attrition.
Sources:
AAOHN.org, 2009
OSHA.gov, 2009
ABOHN.org, 2009
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009
Indeed.com, 2011

 
find clinical nurse specialist programs

Occupational Health Nurse Career at a Glance

A Versatile Career

Occupational health nurses have varied careers from workplace detection to case management. There may not be two days that are the same in this varied career.

There Is A Demand

There is not only a nursing shortage, but there is also a need for occupational health nurse expertise and training.

Nursing Careers at a Glance

Access basic information on many nursing career specialties.

How to Pay for Nursing School

  • As nursing school tuition has increased, a rising number of nursing scholarships and grants have become available for qualifying candidates. Nursing school is expensive, but there are many grants, loans, scholarships, work-study and loan forgiveness programs available to hard-working students. Gain access to nursing school financial first aid.

How to Get Nursing Scholarships

  • Many scholarship and grant opportunities are available to nursing students to encourage people to enter the nursing field and help alleviate the increasing nursing shortages. With a little research, you can learn how to obtain this free money for your nursing school education. Learn how to uncover these nursing scholarship and grant sources to help free you from financial worries.