Since the late 1960s, public health nursing leaders have agreed that a specialty in public health nursing requires a master's degree. Today, a master's degree in nursing is necessary to be eligible to sit for a certification examination. Perhaps because of the absence of a certification examination specifically for public health nursing, a master's degree for the specialty has not been widely recognized or v required. The educational expectations for public health f nursing were highlighted at the 1984 Consensus Conference on the Essentials of Public Health Nursing Practice and Education sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) Division of Nurs¬ing. The participants agreed "that the term 'public health nurse' should be used to describe a person who has received specific educational preparation and supervised clinical practice in public health nursing" (Consensus Conference, 1985, p. 4).