“A good intention, with a bad approach, often leads to a poor result.”
―Thomas Edison
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has identified five areas that impact one’s social determinants of health (SDOH), which include economic stability, education, social and community context, health and healthcare, and neighborhood and surrounding environment (ODPHP, 2020). And although the United States spends more money on healthcare than other highly industrialized countries, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2021), it has some of the poorest health outcomes of other developed countries.
As nurses, we identify the inequities that affect our patients outside of medical care, such as lack of money to purchase needed medications, transportation, food insecurity, poor housing, and fear of safety in the neighborhood. Because of these factors, understanding the impact of the SDOH, in shaping one’s health, is critical to today’s nursing workforce.
As noted in the introductory quote from Thomas Edison, addressing SDOH and developing strategies with good intentions and a bad approach, to promote positive social change, may not help the patient, the community, nor the organization. Planning for change by using a translation model, instead, assists the organization and ensures that a variety of stakeholders have plan input, implementation time is decreased, and outcomes are clearly identified.
Resources
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
To Prepare
· Review the Week 8 Learning Resources. Pay particular attention to Chapter 10 and Appendix A in the Dang, et al. text. Also, review the three exemplars provided in the White et al. text.
· Select an organization with which you are familiar that went through a practice change to address a practice or organization issue.
Note: You may reuse organizations and/or issues that you selected earlier in this course. Or you may select new ones.
· Consider how SDOH and positive social change relate to the issue you selected.
· Consider how the approaches used by the organization to address the practice or organization issue were decided upon and received, as well as if the outcome was satisfactory or not.
By Day 3 Of Week 8
Post the following:
· Identify the organization you selected. Describe the practice or organization issue you selected.
· Explain how SDOH relates to the issue you selected. Be specific and provide examples.
· Were SDOH addressed? If so, in what ways?
· Did positive social change occur? Why or why not?
· Using Appendix A from the Dang et al. text. Briefly describe the steps that were followed and/or missing in the organization’s approach to the practice or organization change.
· Were the outcomes positive or negative?
· If the outcome was less than satisfactory, what could have been done differently to achieve a better outcome? Be specific and provide examples.
· If the outcome was satisfactory, what key actions were taken that led to this positive outcome? Be specific and provide examples.
· How was the change measured, if at all? In what ways were the outcomes evaluated? Be specific and provide examples.
Note: Your posts should be substantial (500 words minimum), supported with scholarly evidence from your research and/or the Learning Resources, and properly cited using APA Style. Personal anecdotes are acceptable as part of a meaningful post but cannot stand alone as the entire post.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ posts.
