Call to Action: Academic Nursing's Role in Redesigning Health Care to Reduce the Human and Financial Cost of Health Inequities

Abstract

Health equity is an aspirational goal for health outcomes that can be achieved when systemic inequalities are addressed. The human cost of health inequities is without number; we can and must ameliorate health inequities. This essay summarizes the impact of continued health disparities and inequities in the United States and outlines the ways in which increasing diversity in the nursing workforce and graduating equity-minded nurses can promote innovation and problem-solving to address these disparities and inequities. We then present multiple pathways for nurses in academia to advance health equity.

Keywords

nursing nursing students health equity social determinants of health academic nursing health disparities

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