Individual, environment, and societal factors influencing health of vulnerable populations is also known as determinants of health. Individual determinants of health include our genes and biological make up. Individual behavior and coping strategies like whether we smoke, exercise regularly, or have a balanced diet can also affect health. Although individual characteristics will play a obvious role in health status, there are many other determinants that can have a huge impact on our health. There are many aspects of your life that you may not think can affect your health, but they do find a way to affect your ability to make healthy choices and therefore be a healthy individual. Education status is a major determinant as it gives you the tools to make healthy decisions by understanding the effects of certain behaviors. Additionally, higher education will tend towards higher paying jobs that may come with health insurance and healthier working conditions. Going hand in hand with education is income. Income is a determinant of health due to living situations. Those with higher incomes with stay in safer neighborhoods, can purchase healthier foods by having access to a grocery store, and having their own mode of transportation to get from place to place. Those with low incomes tend to live in more unsafe housing, without close access to grocery stores, less time for exercise, and influences the ability to pay for health care whether insurance is present or not. Where you live has such a great impact on your health as those who are exposed to poorer living conditions can be exposed to toxins in the home. A specific example of a health issue that occurs in lower income housing includes lead poisoning because many older buildings are painted with paint that has lead in it. Adding to that, lower income housing also could be set in more unsafe neighborhoods where there is increased crime and violence. This would decrease the chances of someone going out to get exercise. Thriving neighborhoods can offer employment, transportation, and good schools. Access to health care is a major determinant. It is affected by majority of the other health determinants. Culture is another health determinant due to certain cultures having different beliefs regarding decisions in healthcare. Political determinants are big in the public health terms including social democratic regimes, lower income inequalities, or higher public spending. With all of that, determinants of health create much inequality in the health care but there are ways that we can fix it.
Resolving health and healthcare disparities is an ongoing issue. In an ideal world, resolving these issues would include everyone having close access to health care at no cost. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world and these health disparities are still present. There are ways that we can work to minimize these health disparities. On a large scale, nurses and other health care professionals can work with large public health organizations such as the CDC to creating free pop up health care clinics in lower income towns so that they can have access to healthcare closer to home. On a smaller scale, individuals that live in these lower income places can work with the town to help promote a healthier life style. This could include the creation of safe parks and green areas for people to exercise in, playground for children to play in, and occasional farmers markets in these neighborhoods with healthy food options. Additionally, we could provide a space for support and collaboration for those that strive to help improve the health of the vulnerable populations. Everyone can bring in different ideas on how to help with this public health issue and find ways to put them into play.
I will bring what I have learned about health disparities into my career as a nurse. It has made me feel more compassionate and understanding of what other are going through. I have always been lucky enough to be less than five minutes from the health clinic in my town. Now understanding the inequality that the health care system has and the disparities that some people deal with, it pushes me to really get the full story of what brought my patients to access health care. Getting this full story, I can see any factors in their life that may affect their health and give any recommendations to help improve the obstacles they may face regarding their health. can also use this knowledge to educate potential colleagues about the potential health disparities that our patients have gone through and to assume anything about anyone just because of where they come from or how they look. Finally, learning about health disparities has increased my interest in public health nursing. I feel passionate about equality in health care because everyone deserves to be healthy, no matter their situation at home.
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