What is an occupational health nurse? An occupational health nurse, or OHN, is a nurse who specializes in providing care to employees within various workplaces. Occupational health nursing involves hazard identification, risk mitigation and health promotion, as well as fundamental patient care tasks like treatment administration.
The nursing field is incredibly diverse, offering many specialties to choose from. Nurses can specialize by patient population, such as working with children in pediatrics or with elderly patients in adult-gerontology nursing, or by medical conditions, such as working with cancer patients in oncology. Nursing specialties can also be categorized by work setting, such as occupational health nursing.
Occupational health nursing can be a good fit for anyone who enjoys problem-solving and wants to practice nursing outside of hospitals and away from the bedside. What is an occupational health nurse, and what do they do? In this blog post, we will explore occupational health nursing, including the key responsibilities and essential skills, and how you can become one.
What Is an Occupational Health Nurse?
As the job title implies, an occupational health nurse (OHN) is a registered nurse (RN) who specializes in caring for employees and ensuring they work in a safe environment. Employee health and safety are critical for the continued functioning of any organization, particularly those with inherent workplace hazards (e.g., workplaces that involve heavy machinery, chemical hazards or biohazards).
Some companies hire OHNs to help keep their workforce healthy and safe. In doing so, they help support employees’ productivity while fighting absenteeism.
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Occupational Health Nurse Job Description
One way in which occupational health nursing differs from some other nursing specialties is that OHNs are tasked with an incredibly broad range of responsibilities. On any given day, an occupational nurse’s responsibilities can cover the following areas:
- Hazard identification: OHNs must actively identify workplace hazards and implement effective risk mitigation strategies to protect workers.
- Risk reduction: OHNs work toward better risk reduction by designing programs for employees that focus on safe workplace practices and healthy lifestyle habits.
- Health screenings: Employers may ask OHNs to conduct health screenings to ensure prospective, new and current employees are healthy enough to do their job. For example, they may conduct drug and alcohol screenings, hearing tests and physical exams.
- Treatments: OHNs treat employees for work-related injuries and illnesses. They may recommend that employees stay at home while recovering.
- Case management: OHNs manage cases for employees’ injuries and illnesses. They may handle paperwork related to workers’ compensation, disability benefits and the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Specifically, an OHN may conduct the following occupational health nurse duties:
- Perform patient assessments, take medical histories and ask questions about symptoms
- Determine how an injury or illness may have occurred
- Develop or contribute to treatment plans
- Administer treatments, such as medications
- Determine when patients need to go to a hospital for further evaluation or care
- Provide health counseling and patient education
- Administer immunizations
- Develop and implement safety training programs
- Meet with workplace leaders to discuss workplace hazards and risk mitigation strategies
- Conduct research on the potential effects of workplace hazards
Where Do These Nurses Work?
An OHN can work in various settings. Often, these nurses work for large corporations and organizations, particularly workplaces with a higher risk of medical ailments, such as warehouses, factories, and construction sites. Some OHNs work on military bases, in academic settings, or even in hospitals and urgent care centers.
Essential Skills for Occupational Health Nurses
Because of the variety of their job duties, OHNs benefit from having a diverse skill set. This includes both hard skills and soft skills, such as the following:
Hard Skills
Hard skills are occupation-specific skills that nurses need to fulfill their job duties. For an OHN, the following hard skills are essential:
- CPR
- Health assessment
- Emergency care
- Infection control
- Health promotion
- Patient safety
- Medical records maintenance
In addition, OHNs need a strong working knowledge of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and how they apply to their specific workplace. They must also be well-versed with compliance guidelines so they can protect the health and safety of their patients.
Soft Skills
Along with hard skills, OHNs benefit from exercising a variety of soft skills. Soft skills are not specific to nursing and are transferable across different fields and industries. Those that benefit occupational health nursing in particular include:
- Communication skills
- Cultural competence
- Critical thinking and analytical reasoning
- Problem-solving
- Adaptability
- Leadership
- Teamwork
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Career Pathway for Occupational Health Nursing
Does the OHN job description look appealing to you? If you’re eager to start working toward this nursing specialty, you can follow the career pathway below:
Nursing Degree
Your first step toward a career in nursing in any specialty is to earn a nursing degree. If you already have a prior non-nursing college education, you might not have to return to school for four more years to earn a bachelor’s degree. Instead, consider applying to an Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program, such as the one available at Northeastern University.
Here, you can apply your prior college credits or completed degree toward earning a BSN in as few as 16 months. You’ll work through online coursework and build nursing skills and clinical judgment in hands-on labs.
At Northeastern, our ABSN curriculum is designed to prepare students for careers in a variety of nursing specialties. You will complete a series of clinical rotations designed to provide you with real-world nursing experience and an insider’s look at various nursing specialties.
Nursing License
After graduating with your BSN, your next step is to earn a nursing license. You’ll do this by passing the NCLEX-RN. This rigorous exam tests your nursing knowledge and ability to form appropriate clinical responses to various patient care scenarios. You’ll need to begin preparing for the exam well in advance to do well. At Northeastern, our curriculum is designed to prepare students to confidently take the NCLEX.
Gain Work Experience
It’s common for employers to require prospective OHNs to have at least a couple of years of clinical work experience. While employers do not typically require nurses to have experience in a specific nursing specialty, it’s ideal to gain exposure to a wide range of patient populations with different medical conditions. For example, you might work as an:
- Urgent care nurse
- Emergency room nurse
- Critical care nurse
- Medical-surgical nurse
Consider Optional Certification
After you land a role as an OHN and gain some work experience in occupational health nursing, you might consider pursuing voluntary certification. An OHN certification demonstrates your competencies and dedication to your work. It can also open doors to potential career advancement.
Which certification should you choose? You might consider the options available from the American Board for Occupational Health Nurses (ABOHN). The ABOHN offers two main certifications:
- Certified Occupational Health Nurse (COHN)
- Certified Occupational Health Nurse - Specialist (COHN-S)
The former certification is ideal for nurses who want to remain in clinical practice, while the latter prepares nurses to pursue administrative roles. After earning one of these certifications, you might also consider taking the exam to achieve the Case Management certification from ABOHN.
Career Opportunities for Occupational Health Nurses
There are many career opportunities available to nurses working in occupational health. Some larger companies may have multiple career opportunities for OHNs, such as:
- OHN clinician
- OHN manager
- OHN consultant
- OHN nurse practitioner (NP)
A clinician is an OHN who focuses on providing nursing care to employees. A manager is charged with directing and overseeing the OHN department and all of its activities. A consultant typically specializes in evaluating workplaces for hazards and providing guidance to employers.
Lastly, an OHN nurse practitioner is a type of advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) who specializes in occupational health. To become an NP, you’ll need at least a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), but a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is preferred. You must also pass a board certification exam in your specialty and obtain an APRN license from your state to work as an OHN NP.
Wondering how to choose a nursing specialty? Consider these tips.
Take the First Steps at Northeastern
No matter which nursing specialty suits you best, you can build a firm foundation for your future career at Northeastern University’s ABSN program. Here, you’ll benefit from highly dedicated instructors, small class sizes and an accelerated timeline, allowing you to embark on your career sooner than through traditional BSN programs. Choose from three start dates per year and graduate in as few as 16 months.
Ready to get started? We’re here to help. Contact our friendly admissions counselors today to explore your future at Northeastern.
