In the past the role of the Registered Nurse (RN) was misunderstood and wasted within the primary care setting (Oelke, Besner and Carter, 2014). The Department of Health and Children (2001b) suggests that role of the nurse in the primary care setting is to provide first-level contact that can be accessed by all members of the community via self-referral and to improve their health and social well being while trying to keep patients within their community and their own homes. World Health Organisation (WHO) Declaration of Alma Ata (1978) states that a RN’s role within the community encompasses the assessment of an individual’s needs as well as looking at the wider community needs by using the social determinants of health diagram and creating
…show more content…
These situations include the circumstances people are born, grow, work, live and age in with these conditions being fashioned by the distribution of wealth, authority and resources at all levels, be it global or local (McMurray, 2007). McMurray (2007) and Reutter and Kushner (2010) also suggests that as health is socially determined, this is where the solution to ill health lies so it is crucial that RN’s examine disadvantages amongst those within their communities to provide necessary services to reduce health inequalities and therefore help increase the health of their community as a whole. The Social Determinants in Appendix 1, which was created by Dahlgren and Whitehead in 1991, places the factors that affect health into five different categories; 1) Age, sex and Hereditary factors, 2) Individual Lifestyle Factors, 3) Social and Community Networks, 4) Living and Working Conditions and 5) General Socio-economic, Cultural and Environmental Factors. Four out of Five of these categories are modifiable but we can only change these by addressing their causes at the roots and it is these root causes that RN’s need to focus on be it through introducing social policies or creating programmes (Braveman and Egerter, …show more content…
This is once again re-iterated by Adler, Stewart, Cohen, Cullen, Diex Roux, Dow et. Al. (2007) when they state that “People who grow up on the bottom (rungs of the socioeconomic ladder) die younger and are sicker throughout their lifetimes than those who are born to the rungs above them” with Braveman and Egerter (2008) stating that they are seven times more likely to suffer from bad health than those on the top rung of the ladder. There are also many other factors than just social status which children experience during their childhood that is directly linked to poorer health in adulthood (Braveman and Barclay, 2008) such as their parents Living and working conditions, category four in the social determinants of health (appendix 1). If a child suffers from lifelong exposure to stress within their living environment due to their parents stressing about paying rent or their toxic work environment then psychological maladaptation occurs as a direct result to this persistent exposure to stress which then heightens their risk of acquiring a chronic disease (Centre on the Developing Child,
These situations include the circumstances people are born, grow, work, live and age in with these conditions being fashioned by the distribution of wealth, authority and resources at all levels, be it global or local (McMurray, 2007). McMurray (2007) and Reutter and Kushner (2010) also suggests that as health is socially determined, this is where the solution to ill health lies so it is crucial that RN’s examine disadvantages amongst those within their communities to provide necessary services to reduce health inequalities and therefore help increase the health of their community as a whole. The Social Determinants in Appendix 1, which was created by Dahlgren and Whitehead in 1991, places the factors that affect health into five different categories; 1) Age, sex and Hereditary factors, 2) Individual Lifestyle Factors, 3) Social and Community Networks, 4) Living and Working Conditions and 5) General Socio-economic, Cultural and Environmental Factors. Four out of Five of these categories are modifiable but we can only change these by addressing their causes at the roots and it is these root causes that RN’s need to focus on be it through introducing social policies or creating programmes (Braveman and Egerter, …show more content…
This is once again re-iterated by Adler, Stewart, Cohen, Cullen, Diex Roux, Dow et. Al. (2007) when they state that “People who grow up on the bottom (rungs of the socioeconomic ladder) die younger and are sicker throughout their lifetimes than those who are born to the rungs above them” with Braveman and Egerter (2008) stating that they are seven times more likely to suffer from bad health than those on the top rung of the ladder. There are also many other factors than just social status which children experience during their childhood that is directly linked to poorer health in adulthood (Braveman and Barclay, 2008) such as their parents Living and working conditions, category four in the social determinants of health (appendix 1). If a child suffers from lifelong exposure to stress within their living environment due to their parents stressing about paying rent or their toxic work environment then psychological maladaptation occurs as a direct result to this persistent exposure to stress which then heightens their risk of acquiring a chronic disease (Centre on the Developing Child,