Essay Example on Nurses: Enhancing Competence, Integrity and Social Determinants of Health

Nurses today have several elements guiding the profession. Several items are supposed to enhance competence and integrity. Nursing ethics as a field addresses how nurses are supposed to treat each other, treat their patients, acts and why. These ethical rules promote the growth of nursing as a profession. Social determinants of health are conditions within the environment where people are born, live and work that encourage or derail their individual and public health. The world health organization has identified some social determinants of health that may negatively impact a patient's health. Some of these identified multiple determinants of health that contribute to health inequity. Below are ways in which nursing ethics relate to social determinants of health.

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To begin with, the social determinants of health have not always been traditionally included in the nursing curriculum. It is through nursing ethics that student nurses interact with social determinants of health (Thornton, & Persaud, 2018). Through ethics, nurses interact with social determinants of health that affect communities. Nurses are now able to understand involved and more drivers of health which include gender identity, security, education, and sexual orientation. All of the mentioned are SDOH presented to students through ethics.

Nursing ethics also relates to SDOH of health through realization. Nursing ethics enables nurses to realize social forces that influence their decisions while in the field. It is through nursing ethics that a relationship between disease and social environment is established (Wilson, 2019). Ethical Decisions made by the nurses help create progressive reforms that can help tackle negative social determinants of health.

Nursing ethics and SDOH inform the way nurses view their patients. The environment within which care is provided influences the nurse's decision on whether they see their patient as consumers or people who need proper medical care (Kneipp et al.,2018) How nurses view their patients is just one example of how the society influences the ethics of a nurse. This influence is a way to explain the relationship that ethics and SDOH share.

Conclusion

In conclusion, with globalization and the rise of new pandemics, each day, nurses are influenced to make an ethical decision based on societal information. Deep connections have been established between the society and the nurses that denying the relationship between nursing ethics and SDOH cannot be overlooked.

References

Kneipp, S. M., Todd, A., Drevdahl, D. J., Canales, M. K., Santacroce, S., & Anderson, R. (2018). Trends in Health Disparities, Health Inequity, and Social Determinants of Health Research.

Thornton, M., & Persaud, S. (2018). Preparing today's nurses: Social determinants of health and nursing education. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 23(3).

Wilson, M. L. (2019). Incorporating social determinants of health into patient care. Nursing Management, 50(12), 13-15.