Title : Public health nursing: Promoting health equity & mitigating the social determinants of health
Abstract:
Public health nurses are on the front lines of the battle to combat health disparities and inequitable access to health care among societies’ most disadvantaged and vulnerable populations. Nurses are a driving force in promoting health and wellness within the communities they serve. New York City Health + Hospitals is the largest municipal public health care system in the United States, safeguarding 1.4 million patients annually, caring for one in every six New Yorkers through 11 essential hospitals, five post–acute care facilities, more than 70 community centers, and correctional health services in city jails. The 9,600+ nurses represent the largest segment of the system’s 40,000 employees, charged with delivering essential health care services to all members of society, regardless of ethnicity, culture, creed, gender, age, sexual orientation, income, immigration, or insurance status. NYC Health + Hospitals is in the process of reinventing nursing culture with a renewed focus on achieving true nursing excellence, emphasizing professional evidence-based best practices and a compassionate care delivery model, putting nurses in the forefront of efforts to address the social determinants of health and the devastating consequences of health disparities. Systemwide implementation of foundational transformation is positioning nursing in the vanguard of the system’s commitment to equity and diversity in the workplace, recognizing unconscious bias, calling out bigotry, and rooting out systemic racism, all key recommendations in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity. As this report indicates, public health nurses are community collaborators and bridge builders and therefore are uniquely positioned within the broader health care landscape to address the social determinants of health and help promote health equity and improve access to care in a wide variety of practice settings. Over the past three years, NYC Health + Hospital’s Office of Patient Centered Care (OPCC) has embarked on an ambitious plan to create a culture of transformative change for our system, moving away from the idea of health care as treating illness and injury, and moving more toward the concept of preventing chronic illness and promoting wellness through community-based, patient-centered nursing. Our public health mission encompasses far more than just treating disease and trauma; it incorporates programs designed to foster early detection and treatments of chronic conditions, such as regular blood pressure and cancer screenings, as well as educational programs that highlight the importance of good nutrition, exercise, and other healthy lifestyle behaviors. Our public health nurses are uniquely poised to consider the distinctive and diverse cultures and backgrounds of our patients and the communities we serve, giving nurses exceptional opportunities to make a difference in the care and lives of patients by addressing the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural factors that help build healthy communities. NYC Health + Hospital’s public health nurses play a critical role in assessing and incorporating the social determinants of health into professional practice and patient care to alleviate health inequities and achieve greater health and well-being at all levels of society.
Audience Take Away:
- Provide a broad overview of the framework for the social determinants of health and how NYC Health + Hospitals’ public health nurses are addressing these sociopolitical, economic, and cultural factors in patient care.
- Examine how the social determinants of health have a significant impact on evidence-based professional practice and overall patient care within our public health system.
- Illuminate the important role that public health nurses and public health systems play in identifying and addressing the social determinants of health in local communities and patient populations.
- Discuss developing programs to promote health and wellness in patients, families and communities by taking the social determinants of health into account.
