Improving health outcomes requires engaging nursing students with the systemic challenges their patients face.
says Dr. Phyllis Morgan, nursing faculty member at Walden University.
It’s a startlingly low percentage.
“Most of what impacts health are the places where we live, work, and play. The environment, income, educational level, structural issues,” she continues. “Those are the things that really play a major part in health outcomes.”
Dr. Morgan is referring to the social determinants of health that impact nearly every aspect of one’s life.
says Dr. Judi Kuric, associate dean of Walden’s nurse practitioner program.
The social determinants of health also influence health equity—the fair and just opportunity to attain the highest level of health—often leading to health disparities and impacting racial and ethnic minority groups at higher rates.
Social Determinants of Health at Walden University
Walden’s mission focuses on effecting positive social change, something the social determinants of health framework addresses. Through its infusion in the nursing curriculum, programs, and partnerships, nursing faculty and students can become social change agents.
“We continue our commitment to providing current education about the importance of the social determinants of health and what that means for today’s nurse,” says Dr. Andrea Lindell, vice provost at Walden. “Curriculum content enforces the impact of students’ actions in setting the foundation for social change, health equity and practice in delivery of population healthcare.”
A May 2023 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study found that less than one-third of nurses said they were taught about racial bias/stereotypes or systemic racism in healthcare in nursing school.
Partnership with the National League for Nursing
The movement to apply the social determinants of health framework to nursing education at Walden was expanded through the work of Dr. Lindell. She spearheaded the development of a partnership between Walden and the National League for Nursing (NLN). The Institute for Social Determinants of Health and Social Change launched in 2021 and focuses on the role of nursing education in achieving health equity.
As part of the institute, the Social Change Leadership Academy is developing leaders who are implementing projects of social change and who are bringing their expertise and experience into the classroom.
says Dr. Lindell.
Dr. Morgan was one of the Walden faculty members chosen for the inaugural academy cohort and has committed her career to focusing on health inequities that disproportionately affect Black women and men.
Social Determinants of Health and HBCUs
Dr. Morgan’s research for the Social Change Academy focused on infusing the social determinants of health into nursing curriculum and partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), to help address the negative health outcomes that impact communities of color at higher rates.
As stated in an article she published on the research, “Infusing social determinants of health throughout curricula encourages health professions students to recognize connections between social determinants and equity, with downstream effects of improved health.”
Doctoral Nursing Programs and Social Determinants of Health
says faculty member Dr. Diane Whitehead.
“With everything we look at, especially in underserved populations or for those who don’t have access to good healthcare or marginal access, the social determinants of health help the student put it into a bigger perspective, because social change isn’t just this nebulous term,” says Dr. Whitehead. “Now they really have to use the framework. For the DNP program, it really helps students broaden their horizon to think outside the box.”
Walden is the No. 3 largest provider of U.S. nursing education.
Nurse Practitioners and Social Determinants of Health
The nurse practitioner program makes sure students are well-versed in understanding just how all-encompassing the social determinants of health are when it comes to taking care of patients. Students are asked to look at the whole person and circumstances, not just the present illness.
“We want students to understand that it’s part of each interaction with a patient,” says Dr. Kuric. “We ask students how each aspect of the social determinants of health affects a patient’s health. How does that contribute to a long and healthy life or how does that contribute to the current problem?”
When a student is in a clinical course, part of the assignment is to assess the social determinants of health in the patients they see, to document it and include it in the treatment plan. The result is graduates who understand and can take the reigns as leaders of social change. During the pandemic, one of Dr. Kuric’s students, who is an adult gerontology primary care nurse practitioner, became the medical lead in her county responsible for getting COVID-19 vaccinations for the community.
“It was very natural for her to take the lead on this, because of her experience at Walden,” says Dr. Kuric.
For more information, email the Adtalem Global Communications Team: adtalemmedia@adtalem.com.
