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

Thoughts About Health Policies

“…In particular, policies targeted to changes in organizational structures and governmental systems can do much to eliminate the disparities in planetary health conditions and outcomes experienced by the many vulnerable populations in the United States and globally. (Kuehnert et al, 2022) *Regulatory and financial actions, put forth by federal and state legislators and insurance companies, that affect provision of nursing care and reimbursement for that care (Giddens, 2017). "Health policy involves goal directed decision-making about health that is the result of an authorized public decision-making process (Keller & Ridenour, 2021, as cited in American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2021, p. 13).…”

Thoughts About Environment

“…. include the population's values, beliefs, social organizations, and practices related to health" (Kuehnert et al, 2022). Socioeconomic environment is "the social and financial circumstances of the population, influenced by income, education, occupation, gender, race, and ethnicity" (Kuehnert et al, 2022).…”

“…include the population's values, beliefs, social organizations, and practices related to health" (Kuehnert et al, 2022). Socioeconomic environment is "the social and financial circumstances of the population, influenced by income, education, occupation, gender, race, and ethnicity" (Kuehnert et al, 2022). Physical environment is "the physical surroundings of the population" (Kuehnert et al, 2022) Cultural environment encompasses "the particular health-related life-ways of a population .…”

“…A recent paper written by several members of five American Academy of Nursing expert panels includes a conceptual framework that extends the external environment to the planet (Kuehnert et al, 2022). They identified four types of the environment-cultural, socioeconomic, physical, and politicalthat are relevant for planetary health (see Table ).…”

To the Editor

“…

I was delighted to see the consensus paper from the American Academy of Nursing on the very timely and important topic of the social determinants of health, and even more pleased to see their emphasis on policy-level change (Kuehnert et al, 2022). I was all the more disappointed, therefore, when I got to their actual policy proposals.

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