Public Health Nursing

Public Health Nursing (PHN) is a specialty practice within nursing and public health. We focus on preventing illness and improving the health of groups of people, especially those who are more likely to develop health problems. Over time, this results in fewer people getting sick and allows people who already have a condition to manage it effectively. In the end, this makes communities healthier for everyone. In Wyoming, State and County governments work together to provide public health nursing services. These nursing offices are located in county health offices throughout Wyoming.

Contact Info:

6101 Yellowstone Rd, #420
Cheyenne, WY 82002
(307) 777-7275

Wyoming Public Health Nursing (PHN) Vision & Mission

Vision:
Collaborative, Creative, Current, and Competent Nurses Providing Compassionate and Consistent Care to Communities

Mission:
Through our commitment to excellence in public health nursing, we strive to promote, protect, and improve health and prevent disease and injury in Wyoming’s communities.

We do this by:

assuring access to care and essential services
engaging the public and community partners through outreach and collaboration
ongoing assessment of communities to ensure health needs are planned for and met,
informing policy through public education and provision of health information.

Click below to see the different ways PHN works with you and your community.

PHN services and partners

10 Ways PHNs Improve Health

2016 Public Health Nursing statistics

% of vaccinations given in Wyoming 2016 25-30% 25-30%
% of PHN serving on boards and/or coalitions that benefit public health 65% 65%

hours of PHN service in 2016

December 1 is World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day is a global initiative to raise awareness, fight prejudice, and improve education about HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Around the world, about 37 million people are living with HIV. In the United States, about 38,500 people get infected with HIV every year. The only way to know if you have HIV is to get tested. It’s important that everyone ages 15 to 65 gets tested for HIV at least once. Some people may need to get tested more often.

The Wyoming Department of Health, Communicable Disease Unit recommends all individuals between the age of 15 and 65 years get tested for HIV at least once in their lifetime and more often if they have risk factors. The CDC estimates 162,500 individuals are unaware of their status. Providers play a critical role in identifying individuals with risks and ensuring those individuals get tested.

The most recent HIV Screening and Testing recommendations can be found at, https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/guidelines/testing.html. For more information on the Wyoming Communicable Disease Unit, please visit our website at, https://health.wyo.gov/publichealth/communicable-disease-unit/. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact:

Debi Anderson, Manager                                             Brittany Wardle, Manager
Communicable Disease Unit                                        Communicable Disease Prevention Program debi.anderson@wyo.gov                                             brittany.wardle@wyo.gov
307.777.7529                                                              307.777.3562

Shelley Hood, Manager                                               Courtney Smith
Communicable Disease Treatment Program              Communicable Disease Surveillance Program
shelley.hood1@wyo.gov                                             courtney.smith@wyo.gov
307.777.5856                                                              307.777.2434