Structural Competency in Health Care

Equity and justice in health

BACKGROUND

While justice is promised to all U.S. citizens, the truth is that the pathway to equity and justice in health is riddled with obstacles for many marginalized and minoritized groups. The United States ranks lower on crucial health measures than its high-income peer countries, reflecting differences in health outcomes for marginalized and minoritized populations.

PURPOSE

Promoting equity and justice in health is vital as health shapes the daily experiences of individuals and communities, specifically those from marginalized and minoritized backgrounds.

METHOD

This paper highlights the health care system and sociopolitical factors contributing to the longstanding structural barriers that impede health and the need for structural competence, advocacy, and activism in the nursing workforce.

DISCUSSION

Understanding systemic issues underlying health inequities provides an opportunity to develop targeted strategies to eliminate practices perpetuating inequities and pave the way for everyone to have a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.

CONCLUSION

Specific education, practice, research, and policy recommendations can advance equity and justice in health.

Advocacy for Health Justice: An Innovative Pilot Course for MD and Master of Public Policy Students

Problem: U.S. medical schools are searching for ways to address issues of health justice in undergraduate medical education. Physicians have not typically received training in how to be effective advocates for systemic change and individuals in policy fields are not usually equipped to understand the complex issues of health science and their intersection with the health system and society. To address this gap, medical school faculty partnered with school of public policy faculty on a collaborative learning model that engaged MD and Master of Public Policy students together to strengthen their collective knowledge of the healthcare landscape, and to build skills to work for health justice. Intervention: We hypothesized that pairing medical students with public policy students to learn about the intersections of health justice and advocacy could enhance the efficacy of each group and provide a new model of collaboration between medical and policy professionals. The students collaborated on a health justice advocacy project through which they provided consultation to an established community organization. Context: The 8-week course took place in the spring of 2021 in Los Angeles, California. Due to Covid-19 the course was taught online and included asynchronous learning modules and live Zoom sessions. The project also served as a pilot for the post-clerkship phase of a new longitudinal health justice curriculum for MD students that launched in August 2021. Impact: Analysis of student work products, course evaluations, partner interviews, and student focus groups showed that students valued learning through their interdisciplinary collaborative work which gave them new perspectives on health justice issues. The community partners indicated that the students consultative work products were useful for their initiatives, and that they found working with MD and MPP students to be a valuable way to think about how to build stronger and more inclusive coalitions to advocate for health justice. This project has the potential for national impact as it aligns with the Association of American Medical Colleges' renewed focus on the responsibility of academic medicine to partner with communities for health justice. The project also contributed to the national conversation on how to align health systems science education with the aims of health justice through our participation in the American Medical Association Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium. Lessons Learned: Leveraging faculty relationships with community partners was crucial for developing meaningful projects for students. Cultivating and expanding community partner networks is necessary to sustain and scale up this type of intervention. Centering the needs of communities and supporting their on-going work for health justice is essential for becoming an effective advocate. Learning communities that bring interdisciplinary students, healthcare providers, policy professionals, and community partners together to learn from one another can create key opportunities for ameliorating health inequities.

Mapping racial and ethnic healthcare disparities for persons living with dementia: A scoping review

INTRODUCTION

We set out to map evidence of disparities in Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease related dementias healthcare, including issues of access, quality, and outcomes for racial/ethnic minoritized persons living with dementia (PLWD) and family caregivers.

METHODS

We conducted a scoping review of the literature published from 2000 to 2022 in PubMed, PsycINFO, and CINAHL. The inclusion criteria were: (1) focused on PLWD and/or family caregivers, (2) examined disparities or differences in healthcare, (3) were conducted in the United States, (4) compared two or more racial/ethnic groups, and (5) reported quantitative or qualitative findings.

RESULTS

Key findings include accumulating evidence that minoritized populations are less likely to receive an accurate and timely diagnosis, be prescribed anti-dementia medications, and use hospice care, and more likely to have a higher risk of hospitalization and receive more aggressive life-sustaining treatment at the end-of-life.

DISCUSSION

Future studies need to examine underlying processes and develop interventions to reduce disparities while also being more broadly inclusive of diverse populations.

Community health nurses leadership in advancing health equity

OBJECTIVE

To describe the solutions community health nurses (CHNs) identify to address health inequities during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore what leadership competencies enable CHNs to enact these solutions.

DESIGN

Online survey, distributed to all members of the Community Health Nurses of Canada and associated provincial and territorial networks.

PARTICIPANTS

Inclusion criteria included all nurses who were working during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. A total of 245 responses were included in the analysis.

MEASUREMENT

The survey included 25 open ended and fixed response questions. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the quantitative data. Framework Analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data.

RESULTS

Solutions focused on advancing health equity and expanding community relationships and partnerships were identified as priorities. To enact these solutions system transformation, engaging others, and developing coalitions were identified as the main leadership competencies required by CHNs.

CONCLUSION

Participants in this study clearly articulated structural and process solutions to address health inequities among priority populations during the pandemic. CHNs described with practice knowledge and confidence that solutions enacted in system transformation with community partners are necessary to advance health equity.

The AACP Academic Affairs Committee's Final 2022 Curricular Outcomes and Entrustable Professional Activities (COEPA) for Pharmacy Graduates to Replace 2013 CAPE and 2016 EPAs

The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Academic Affairs Committee was charged with revising both the 2013 Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Education (CAPE) Educational Outcomes (EOs) and the 2016 Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs). The Committee changed the document name from the CAPE outcomes to COEPA, (Curricular Outcomes and Entrustable Professional Activities) since the EOs and EPAs would now be housed together. A draft of the COEPA EOs and EPAs was released at the AACP July 2022 Annual meeting. After receiving additional stakeholder feedback during and after the meeting, the Committee made additional revisions. The final COEPA document was submitted to and approved by the AACP Board of Directors in November 2022. This COEPA document contains the final version of the 2022 EOs and EPAs. The revised EOs have been reduced to 3 domains and 12 subdomains (from 4 domains and 15 subdomains previously in CAPE 2013) and the revised EPAs have been reduced from 15 to 13 activities.