Advancing the Health of Communities and Populations: A Vital Direction for Health and Health Care

Abstract

This publication is part of the National Academy of Medicine's Vital Directions for Health and Health Care Initiative, which called on more than 150 leading researchers, scientists, and policy makers from across the United States to assess and provide expert guidance on 19 priority issues for U.S. health policy. The views presented in this publication and others in the series are those of the authors and do not represent formal consensus positions of the NAM, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, or the authors' organizations. Learn more: nam.edu/VitalDirections.

To stay or leave: Public health nurse workforce retention in North Carolina

“…Today, the US healthcare system has evolved to embrace promotion and prevention over intervention. Supporting strong national public health objectives and efforts by health systems in advancing community and population health are key recommendations from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) (Goldman et al., 2016). PHNs are equipped to be at the center of healthcare transformation as chief health strategists in delivering the essential services of assuring, assessing, and developing policies for the health of communities with a health equity lens focus (PHNCI, 2020).…”

Transforming community well-being through patients' lived experiences

“…The health and well-being of individuals and communities has received intense scrutiny from academics, policymakers, and practitioners Goldman et al, 2016;Lee, Kim, & Phillips, 2015b). However, a model that explicitly connects micro-to meso-level health is currently lacking (e.g., Frieden, 2010;Smedley, Stith, & Nelson, 2008), thus creating difficulties in understanding how service encounters may be connected to a larger community (Graffigna et al, 2017).…”

Vital Directions for Pharmacy Education and Practice: Report of the 2017-18 Argus Commission

“…Community health leaders can foster a culture of continuous health improvement. 4 The group discussion emphasized the natural role pharmacists and student pharmacists can and do play in patient education, interpretation of complex information, including patient-specific diagnostic, laboratory and genetic data, and community engagement. Academic pharmacy is well-aligned in cultural competence, 5 wellness, 6 and population health.…”