Health Equity And Nursing

Authored by highly respected nurse educators, leaders, and scholars, this text focuses on the power of nurses and how they can make substantial contributions to improve the health of all populations. It delivers an in-depth examination and analysis of current issues and determinants of health as outlined by Healthy People 2020 and addresses AACN’s Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice. Along with principles, pathways, and imperatives pertinent to achieving health equity, thetext discusses the evolution of thinking from eliminating health disparities to achieving health equity, and examines population-based and population-specific inequities in health status and outcomes. Highlighting the importance of interprofessional collaboration, it surveys timely initiatives, programs, and professionals—within and outside of the health sciences—who are important partners in efforts toward achieving health equity. Chapters are highly templated to include objectives, key concepts, critical-thinking questions, discussion questions, and resources. Key Features: Focuses on the power of nursing to make substantive contributions to improving the health of all populations Examines principles, pathways, and imperatives pertinent to achieving health equity Discusses economic, environmental, personal, social, and structural factors that impact health status and outcomes Highlights the importance of interprofessional collaboration in achieving health equity Addresses AACN’s Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice Demonstrates key concepts and stimulates reflection through critical-thinking and discussion questions Purchase includes digital access for use on most mobile devices or computers

The decade ahead will test the nation's nearly 4 million nurses in new and complex ways. Nurses live and work at the intersection of health, education, and communities. Nurses work in a wide array of settings and practice at a range of professional levels. They are often the first and most frequent line of contact with people of all backgrounds and experiences seeking care and they represent the largest of the health care professions. A nation cannot fully thrive until everyone - no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make - can live their healthiest possible life, and helping people live their healthiest life is and has always been the essential role of nurses. Nurses have a critical role to play in achieving the goal of health equity, but they need robust education, supportive work environments, and autonomy. Accordingly, at the request of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, on behalf of the National Academy of Medicine, an ad hoc committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conducted a study aimed at envisioning and charting a path forward for the nursing profession to help reduce inequities in people's ability to achieve their full health potential. The ultimate goal is the achievement of health equity in the United States built on strengthened nursing capacity and expertise. By leveraging these attributes, nursing will help to create and contribute comprehensively to equitable public health and health care systems that are designed to work for everyone. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity explores how nurses can work to reduce health disparities and promote equity, while keeping costs at bay, utilizing technology, and maintaining patient and family-focused care into 2030. This work builds on the foundation set out by The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (2011) report.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

The Future of Nursing explores how nurses' roles, responsibilities, and education should change significantly to meet the increased demand for care that will be created by health care reform and to advance improvements in America's increasingly complex health system. At more than 3 million in number, nurses make up the single largest segment of the health care work force. They also spend the greatest amount of time in delivering patient care as a profession. Nurses therefore have valuable insights and unique abilities to contribute as partners with other health care professionals in improving the quality and safety of care as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted this year. Nurses should be fully engaged with other health professionals and assume leadership roles in redesigning care in the United States. To ensure its members are well-prepared, the profession should institute residency training for nurses, increase the percentage of nurses who attain a bachelor's degree to 80 percent by 2020, and double the number who pursue doctorates. Furthermore, regulatory and institutional obstacles-including limits on nurses' scope of practice-should be removed so that the health system can reap the full benefit of nurses' training, skills, and knowledge in patient care. In this book, the Institute of Medicine makes recommendations for an action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing.

The Future of the Nursing Workforce in the United States: Data, Trends and Implications provides a timely, comprehensive, and integrated body of data supported by rich discussion of the forces shaping the nursing workforce in the US. Using plain, jargon free language, the book identifies and describes the key changes in the current nursing workforce and provide insights about what is likely to develop in the future. The Future of the Nursing Workforce offers an in-depth discussion of specific policy options to help employers, educators, and policymakers design and implement actions aimed at strengthening the current and future RN workforce. The only book of its kind, this renowned author team presents extensive data, exhibits and tables on the nurse labor market, how the composition of the workforce is evolving, changes occurring in the work environment where nurses practice their profession, and on the publics opinion of the nursing profession.

Community health nurses need specialized knowledge and skills to succeed in their unique role in health promotion and disease prevention. This thoroughly updated and revised second edition of Community and Public Health Nursing provides students with an excellent foundation in the theories and concepts of community nursing while also delivering practical, step-by-step guidance in conducting community nursing projects in different settings and situations. This engaging text presents real-world public and community health issues as a context for understanding the complex realities of community nursing with diverse populations. The book is informed by over thirty years of practice, education, and research in community health nursing and is packed with case studies and practice examples. Its team-based approach emphasizes collaboration with communities and other health professionals to promote the health of individuals, families, groups, and communities. Discussion questions, key terms, learning objectives, classroom and seminar exercises, and online resources create a structured framework for learning. The second edition also features new content on health equity, health literacy, and community health nursing in disaster and emergency management. With an emphasis on understanding the clinical application of theories and standards, this text is the perfect resource for community health nursing courses.

Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health was released in September 2019, before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020. Improving social conditions remains critical to improving health outcomes, and integrating social care into health care delivery is more relevant than ever in the context of the pandemic and increased strains placed on the U.S. health care system. The report and its related products ultimately aim to help improve health and health equity, during COVID-19 and beyond. The consistent and compelling evidence on how social determinants shape health has led to a growing recognition throughout the health care sector that improving health and health equity is likely to depend â€" at least in part â€" on mitigating adverse social determinants. This recognition has been bolstered by a shift in the health care sector towards value-based payment, which incentivizes improved health outcomes for persons and populations rather than service delivery alone. The combined result of these changes has been a growing emphasis on health care systems addressing patients' social risk factors and social needs with the aim of improving health outcomes. This may involve health care systems linking individual patients with government and community social services, but important questions need to be answered about when and how health care systems should integrate social care into their practices and what kinds of infrastructure are required to facilitate such activities. Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health examines the potential for integrating services addressing social needs and the social determinants of health into the delivery of health care to achieve better health outcomes. This report assesses approaches to social care integration currently being taken by health care providers and systems, and new or emerging approaches and opportunities; current roles in such integration by different disciplines and organizations, and new or emerging roles and types of providers; and current and emerging efforts to design health care systems to improve the nation's health and reduce health inequities.

This book provides an application of the concepts and recommendations of The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity Report, a Consensus Study from the US National Academy of Medicine. It offers complementary guidance through tools, tips, examples and storytelling. As such this book, written by prominent international academics and nurse practitioners, offers program and policy recommendations for health equity. As the world’s largest and most trusted workforce, nurses are in a key position thus must step up to help address these inequities now. The recent pandemic has laid bare these inequities in ways that are stark and demanding of our attention. This book offers program and policy recommendations, along with case studies, designed to empower nurses to understand and ACT to improve health equity. This text provides nurses an opportunity to clearly see the need for an equitable, just, and fair society. There has never been a more urgent call to action.