Thoughts About the Language of Equity for Population Health

Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory: Relevance and Need for Refinement

The purpose of this article is to highlight the relevance of Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory (SCDNT) in contemporary and future practice, explicitly within the global self-care movement and interprofessional healthcare. The authors discuss the relevance and important strengths within Orem's nursing theory and recommend theoretical refinement within the context of significant societal and healthcare transformation. The constructs of global people-centered care and population health, with related social determinants of health, are identified as critical areas for development if SCDNT is to have continued relevance for nursing practice. Implications for theoretical thinking and nursing education are recommended.

Defining the social determinants of health for nursing action to achieve health equity: A consensus paper from the American academy of nursing

BACKGROUND

The 2019-2020 American Academy of Nursing (Academy, 2019) policy priorities document states that "they have a clear and distinct focus on social determinants of health and uses this lens to advance policies and solutions within each of the three overarching priorities" PURPOSE: This consensus paper seeks to establish conceptual clarity and consensus for what social determinants of health mean for nursing, with emphasis on examples of health policies that advance planetary health equity and improve planetary health-related quality of life.

METHODS

Volunteers from five Expert Panels of the Academy met via videoconference to determine roles and refine the focus of the paper. After the initial discussion, the first draft of the conceptual framework was written by the first three authors of the paper and, after discussion via videoconference with all the co-authors, successive drafts were developed and circulated for feedback. Consensus was reached when all authors indicated acceptance of what became the final version of the conceptual framework.

DISCUSSION

A conceptual framework was developed that describes how the social determinants of health can be addressed through nursing roles and actions at the individual, family, and population levels with a particular focus on the role of health policy. The paper provides a specific health policy example for each of the six key areas of the social determinants of health to illustrate how nurses can act to improve population health.

CONCLUSION

Nursing actions can support timely health policy changes that focus on upstream factors in the six key areas of the social determinants of health and thus improve population health. The urgent need to eliminate systematic and structural racism must be central to such policy change if equity in planetary health-related quality of life is to be attained.

Thoughts About Social Justice

This is the second of two essays addressing equity and social justice, which are interrelated concepts of considerable interest to members of our discipline. The purpose of this essay is to define social justice within the context of the conceptual model of nursing and health policy and to link social justice with equity in population health and with practice. An essay about equity appeared in a previous issue of Nursing Science Quarterly.