Answers
Ans) The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels.
Recommended nursing strategies:
- Nurses are a large group of service providers who have a central ethic of caring and an agenda of early intervention and health promotion in their work to improve the health status of communities.
- As a group of health workers, nurses traditionally have been reluctant to consider domestic violence as a health issue, preferring instead to consider it to be the domain of social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists. Nurses have also been reluctant to embrace this issue in hospital settings.
- Despite this, nurses have an important role to play in their work in hospital and community settings, to assist women (and their children) who are victims of abuse/violence in a domestic situation.
- Evidence shows the effects of abuse/violence have a profound impact on women's and children's health, and that women regularly seek services from health care workers, including nurses, for health concerns related to this abuse/violence.
- While domestic violence remains a serious and frequent aspect of women's intimate relationships, and women and children suffer health consequences as a result, nurses have a significant role to play in working toward the prevention and early intervention of domestic violence.
- It is imperative that nurses are prepared to educate themselves, and confront their fears, values and beliefs, while working towards creating an environments for this to occur.