Community Problems in Health Care and DNP-Prepared Nurses as Health Care reformers.
The biggest health care issues in my community are inequitable access to primary and specialty care, long standing health disparities among racial and socioeconomic groups, and fractured system of access to preventive and behavioral health care. They are not just operational issues but more than simple moral, economic, and social justice failures that disproportionately affect disadvantaged people and lead to unnecessary suffering and disease. Access to timely care is still a crucial issue, especially for poor, unstable population, poor in transportation and with language problems. While these services might exist, systemic barriers like long wait times, insurance limitations, and low culturally competent care often hinder adequate use. Ethically, this is a violation of distributive justice; health resources are not equitably distributed according to need. There is even more inequality within the scope of structural racism disadvantage is built into policy, institutional practice, and care delivery norms which systematically discriminate against racialized individuals (Nardi et al., 2020). A major community challenge of chronic disease burden has been linked to social determinants of health including food insecurity and unsafe communities, and access to preventive services. When health care systems concentrate on piecemeal management, instead of preventative and population-based, they accidentally help to further inequities. Nardi et al. (2020), highlight that addressing health disparities means addressing structural determinants of inequity as opposed to addressing individual level behavior and cultural competence training. To not do so is to perpetuate a troubling moral dilemma that implicates nonmaleficence when systems persist in perpetuating harm preventable. Nurses who are DNP-prepared are at an exceptional position to respond to these issues in political engagement and advocacy, both of which are an extension of ethical nursing practice. The professional social participation comprises of participating in professional bodies, policy making, legislative action, and working with community members to mobilize for health change. The AACN Essentials (2021) stress that DNP-prepared nurses need to be leaders of systems-level change, champion equitable policies, and interpret evidence to practice and policy to maximize population health gains. Political engagement would also allow DNP trained nurses to lobby for policies and initiatives that increase access to preventive care, improve behavioral health inclusion, build better language access capacities, and encourage antiracist organizational action. Filling in the gaps with community-level data and equity-stratified outcomes, DNP leaders have the opportunity to educate policymakers about the real-world effects of inequitable systems and offer evidence-based solutions. This method is consistent with nurses’ ethical responsibility to serve justice, honoring human dignity, and minimizing health disparities (Nardi et al., 2020). As a result, inequitable access to care and persistent health disparities are the prominent health care issues in my locality with major ethical and social justice implications. The DNP-prepared nurse, with intentional political engagement and leadership, is at the forefront of health reform that advances healthcare from the cycle of equal access to equity-promoting change, aligning the AACN DNP Essentials and the profession’s commitment to health equity.
References.
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2021). The essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education.
Nardi, D., Waite, R., Nowak, M., Hatcher, B., Hines-Martin, V., & Stacciarini, J.-M. R. (2020). Achieving health equity through eradicating structural racism in the United States: A call to action for nursing leadership. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(6), 696–704.
The biggest health care issues in my community are inequitable access to primary and specialty care, long standing health disparities among racial and socioeconomic groups, and fractured system of access to preventive and behavioral health care. They are not just operational issues but more than simple moral, economic, and social justice failures that disproportionately affect disadvantaged people and lead to unnecessary suffering and disease. Access to timely care is still a crucial issue, especially for poor, unstable population, poor in transportation and with language problems. While these services might exist, systemic barriers like long wait times, insurance limitations, and low culturally competent care often hinder adequate use. Ethically, this is a violation of distributive justice; health resources are not equitably distributed according to need. There is even more inequality within the scope of structural racism disadvantage is built into policy, institutional practice, and care delivery norms which systematically discriminate against racialized individuals (Nardi et al., 2020). A major community challenge of chronic disease burden has been linked to social determinants of health including food insecurity and unsafe communities, and access to preventive services. When health care systems concentrate on piecemeal management, instead of preventative and population-based, they accidentally help to further inequities. Nardi et al. (2020), highlight that addressing health disparities means addressing structural determinants of inequity as opposed to addressing individual level behavior and cultural competence training. To not do so is to perpetuate a troubling moral dilemma that implicates nonmaleficence when systems persist in perpetuating harm preventable. Nurses who are DNP-prepared are at an exceptional position to respond to these issues in political engagement and advocacy, both of which are an extension of ethical nursing practice. The professional social participation comprises of participating in professional bodies, policy making, legislative action, and working with community members to mobilize for health change. The AACN Essentials (2021) stress that DNP-prepared nurses need to be leaders of systems-level change, champion equitable policies, and interpret evidence to practice and policy to maximize population health gains. Political engagement would also allow DNP trained nurses to lobby for policies and initiatives that increase access to preventive care, improve behavioral health inclusion, build better language access capacities, and encourage antiracist organizational action. Filling in the gaps with community-level data and equity-stratified outcomes, DNP leaders have the opportunity to educate policymakers about the real-world effects of inequitable systems and offer evidence-based solutions. This method is consistent with nurses’ ethical responsibility to serve justice, honoring human dignity, and minimizing health disparities (Nardi et al., 2020). As a result, inequitable access to care and persistent health disparities are the prominent health care issues in my locality with major ethical and social justice implications. The DNP-prepared nurse, with intentional political engagement and leadership, is at the forefront of health reform that advances healthcare from the cycle of equal access to equity-promoting change, aligning the AACN DNP Essentials and the profession’s commitment to health equity.
References.
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2021). The essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education.
Nardi, D., Waite, R., Nowak, M., Hatcher, B., Hines-Martin, V., & Stacciarini, J.-M. R. (2020). Achieving health equity through eradicating structural racism in the United States: A call to action for nursing leadership. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 52(6), 696–704.