I sip on dreams

I think I am in love. With Public Health. Got your attention, didn't I?

Last week I was in Denver at the American Public Health Association annual conference. The theme was social justice- awesome! I just feel like this where I am supposed to be. I would be bored out of my mind at a med/surg conference, but I'm fueled by all these talk of public health. It's exciting to be on the other side of problems- trying to stop them before they happen or looking into the root cause of issues.

This conference was a little overwhelming- attendance was the amount of people who live in Alamosa. I basically went to presentations of research projects, sometimes really boring and obvious (yes, people are going to make trade offs when they have high medical bills) and sometimes pretty interesting (the calories on menus really are affecting eating habits). I've already been able to apply some of the things I've learned to everyday and my practice. Now, I love public health nursing, but I only went to one session by that group. And, I was a little disappointed- “Innovations in Environmental Nursing” was explaining a new sort of social network for information on our effect on the environment, starting with “Now you enter http://...” Come on, nurses.

It definitely made me think about wanting to go back to school for more training in this field. Hmmmm....