One of the most critical and involved members of any medical care team, nurses are uniquely positioned to help address and improve health equity.
Desiree Hodges
Board Member, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
Nurses are often considered the foundation of healthcare, in part because they spend more time with patients and their families than any other members of the healthcare team. Every day, they witness the challenges individuals face, gaining a unique perspective that empowers them to advance health equity at the bedside in meaningful ways, both big and small.
“Nurses are well positioned to positively impact health equity for patients and families because they consistently advocate for the resources and care necessary to support healing,” said critical-care nurse practitioner Jennifer Adamski, president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), the largest specialty nursing organization in the world.
Uniquely positioned for change
AACN’s advocacy for health equity focuses on providing resources for individual nurses and partnering with healthcare organizations, universities, corporations, foundations, and government agencies to improve clinical research and medical technology.
Adamski recommends that healthcare providers consider the full clinical picture, not just the current diagnosis or data from a medical device. “To put it simply, if the map doesn’t match the terrain, then the map is wrong. We would never want technology misuse to be another barrier to health equity,” she says. “As nurses, we should be familiar with any limitations of the technology and be mindful of them each time we apply a device to a patient.”
While caring for patients, nurses often notice how social determinants of health, such as community support, education, income, and living conditions, can affect someone’s health. For instance, if individuals don’t have access to healthy food choices, it can increase their chances of developing a chronic condition like diabetes. Individuals who have faced ongoing discrimination, such as members of the LGBTQ+ community, often hesitate to seek care, which contributes to health disparities.
Improving the system
Addressing the link between social factors and clinical outcomes requires a comprehensive approach and original ideas.
Innovative problem-solving is a key reason why hospitals nationwide join AACN’s Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy. In this program, a team of nurses chooses a high-priority issue in their unit, creates a solution, and tracks the results to assess its impact.
Over the past decade, more than 512 nurses at 104 hospitals have completed the program. In total, the program has touched more than 1.27 million patients and more than 7,200 nurses, with an estimated positive fiscal impact to hospitals of nearly $112 million.
Several CSI Academy teams have looked beyond a clinical situation to address underlying causes of poor patient outcomes related to health equity, such as literacy levels. Their efforts have helped prevent complications and reduce readmission rates, such as:
- Creating a standardized discharge teaching toolkit for caregivers of pediatric surgical patients
- Developing educational materials on how to prevent infections and other issues that might cause patients to require another stay in the hospital
- Designing a post-catheterization class to improve a patient’s knowledge and comfort at discharge
In addition, AACN recently partnered with AARP and the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action (an initiative of the AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation), to award nearly $275,000 to 12 projects that offer promising solutions to strengthen the nursing workforce and support healthy, equitable work environments. Such initiatives improve outcomes for patients while demonstrating how nurses can have a positive impact on how care is delivered and ensure that health equity is more than a buzzword.
Vicki Good, AACN’s chief clinical officer, says, “As the largest segment of the healthcare workforce, nurses are uniquely positioned to not only navigate today’s challenges but to shape the future of healthcare.”
