Review information from Healthy People 2020 and the CDC Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities websites. What health disparities can you find that are relevant to your community? How can you better advocate for minority groups who have poorer health outcomes? What specific objectives in Healthy People 2020 can help this effort?

Week 1 Discussion-Exercise and Discussion Questions from Curley Text Book

APRNs are in a prime position to aid in eliminating HD (Curley & Vitale, 2016). APRNs can support minority groups with poor health outlooks in several ways (Curley & Vitale, 2016). These include (but are not limited to) advocating for better/more affordable health insurance for them and ensuring that health services are sufficient in underserved areas (Curley & Vitale, 2016).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published Healthy People 2020 in December 2010 (Curley & Vitale, 2016). This initiative is a roadmap for the U.S. to achieve specific health objectives (Curley & Vitale, 2016). These objectives were established to aid in the improvement of all Americans (Curley & Vitale, 2016). The specific goals that can help in efforts to reduce HDs include:

• AHS-1.1 Increase the proportion of persons with medical insurance
• AHS-3 Increase the proportion of persons with a usual primary care provider
• AHS-4.1 (Developmental) Increase the number of practicing medical doctors
• AHS-4.4 (Developmental) Increase the number of practicing nurse practitioners
• HC/HIT-1.1Increase the proportion of persons who report their health care provider always gave them easy-to-understand instructions about what to do to take care of their illness or health condition

(HP2020, 2019)

References

Ballad Health. (2018). Community Health Needs Assessment: Dickenson Community Hospital. Retrieved from Ballad Health: https://www.balladhealth.org/community-health-needs-assessment

CDC. (2018, August 17). Health Disparities. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/disparities/index.htm

Curley, A. L., & Vitale, P. A. (2016). Population-Based Nursing: Concepts and Competencies for Advanced Practice (Second ed.). New York: Springer Publishing Company.

HP2020. (2019). Data2020 Search. Retrieved from Healthy People 2020: https://www.healthypeople.gov/

Pearson, G. S. (2012). The concept of social justice for our psychiatric nursing practice. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 48, 185-186.