Role of the Nurse in Improving Health Equity and Impacting Social Needs

Nurses can use their position and influence to improve health equity and effectively address people’s multidimensional needs. In agreement with Oruche and Zapolski (2020), nurses can reduce health disparities by being increasingly committed to diversity, inclusion and breaking down barriers to health. In this case, they should ensure health resources are fairly distributed according to people’s diverse needs and that all patients are assisted to achieve their full health potential. The other critical nurse’s role is advocacy, which entails protecting patients’ rights and acting as their voice (Nsiah et al., 2019). While serving this role, nurses ensure no one faces discrimination when seeking care and that all patients can comfortably and safely interact with healthcare professionals. Importantly, nurses should partner with political and health stakeholders to advance health in the communities through education, screening, and other health-related activities. Such activities enable people to understand their health and social needs, advocate for them, and seek timely interventions to live healthily and productively.

Significance of Self-Care for Nursing Burnout and Strategies for Personal and Spiritual Health

Nurse burnout is prevalent in current settings and impedes nurses’ ability to provide high-quality care. Practicing self-care is crucial for nurses to reduce stress, increase their energy levels, and be better positioned to provide compassionate care (Kaple, 2023; Nilsson, 2022). Self-care ensures that nurses are optimally physically, mentally, and emotionally. Self-care strategies include regulating shift schedules, avoiding a high workload, building healthy relationships with co-workers, and exercising. Mindfulness and practicing spirituality are also highly recommended for nurses experiencing or at risk of burnout. To maintain personal and spiritual health, nurses should embrace mindfulness, meditative walking, and religious practices, such as prayers and reading religious books (Nilsson, 2022). These interventions provide nurses with the much-needed psychophysical balance and wellness to practice in stressful conditions. They also improve coping, which reduces job dissatisfaction, anxiety, and fatigue.

Conclusion

Nurses work in diverse settings and encounter patients with varying needs. Irrespective of these differences, nurses must strive to provide timely and satisfactory care as professionally mandated. The endeavor to promote health equity should be universal among nurses to ensure all populations can achieve the best possible care. Besides, nurses should practice self-care through meditation, exercises, mindfulness, and spirituality. Self-care enables them to cope with nurse burnout hence high productivity and job satisfaction.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Social determinants of health at CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/about/sdoh/index.html#:~:text=Social%20determinants%20of%20health%20(SDOH,the%20conditions%20of%20daily%20life.

Kaple, T. (2023). Top tips for nurses on dealing with burnout. NurseJournal. https://nursejournal.org/resources/tips-for-avoiding-nurse-burnout/