35.0: Introduction
Josh, a public health nurse, works in a neighborhood with significant health disparities. The community experiences high rates of chronic diseases, limited access to health care services, environmental hazards, and socioeconomic challenges. Josh recognizes the need to address these disparities and assumes an informal leadership role to mobilize resources and engage the community in promoting health equity.
The nursing profession faces significant challenges in the next decade, including caring for an aging population with complex medical needs, increasing primary care capacity, and bridging the gap between medical care and social factors affecting well-being. Overcoming these obstacles and improving population health requires substantially increasing the number, diversity, distribution, and education of nursing professionals. This chapter comprehensively analyzes the nursing profession’s challenges and suggests several opportunities to address them. Each section of the chapter examines how Josh, a public health nurse, demonstrates leadership in addressing his community’s needs.