Health Equity: A Call to Action for Nurses

Page reviewed and updated: March 2025
 

As nurses, we have long considered the social determinants of health (SDOH)—economic stability, education, social and community context, health and health care, and neighborhood and built environment. Even before “SDOH” became part of the vernacular, we knew that in order to achieve success in individual health, care must include incorporating needs at the community level.

Equal access to care and resources is not the same as health equity. Fairness involves looking at individual and community needs to produce similar outcomes. Offering appropriate accommodations and removal of barriers is essential. As nurses, we have a responsibility to be models and mentors for health equity. The first step is becoming informed and aware of disparities; the next step is to use our voices and actions to make change.
 

 

NURSING POCKET CARDS

Cross-Cultural Nursing Considerations POCKET CARD
Lippincott NursingCenter

Affirming Care for LGBTQIA+ Patients POCKET CARD
Lippincott NursingCenter
 

FROM OUR JOURNALS, BLOGS, & MORE

Methods for Teaching Health Equity and Diversity, Equity Inclusion, and Accessibility to Public Health Practitioners: A Semisystematic Review of the Literature
Journal of Public Health Management & Practice, March/April 2025

CE From Subversion to Hard-Wiring Equity: A Discourse Analysis of Nurses’ Equity-Promoting Practices in Emergency Departments
Advances in Nursing Science, January/March 2025

Intersectionality-Based Cardiovascular Care Among Equity-Deserving Groups: Promoting Cardiovascular Health Equity
The Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, January/February 2025

Training Equity Improves Health Equity
AJN, American Journal of Nursing, November 2024

Leveraging Science to Advance Health Equity: Preliminary Considerations for Implementing Health Equity Science at State and Local Health Departments
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, July/August 2024

Embedding Health Equity Science at the Core of Public Health Practice
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, July/August 2024

A Scoping Review of Health Equity Interventions in Governmental Public Health
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, July/August 2024

Nurse informaticists' role in promoting health equity
Nursing2024, May 2024

Advancing Equity in Maternal Health Care
AJN, American Journal of Nursing, April 2024 

Special Issue: Nursing Administration Quarterly, January/March 2024

CE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Nursing Education: A Christian Perspective
Journal of Christian Nursing, January/March 2024

CE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Collection
American Journal of Nursing, January 2024

Promoting Health Equity: 5 Key Actions for Public Health Agencies
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, January/February 2024

Promoting Health Equity: The Role of Nurses in Addressing Social Determinants of Health
Clinical Nurse Specialist, November/December 2023

Adding Justice to the Health Equity Equation
Lippincott NursingCenter, August 2023

CE Increasing Equity and Inclusion of Nutrition Services for Older Adults
Nutrition Today, July/August 2023

It’s Time to Address Health Equity for All
Lippincott NursingCenter, June 2023

Nurses' role in addressing social determinants of health
Nursing2022, April 2022

CE The Future of Nursing: Application of Health Equity in Orthopaedics
Orthopaedic Nursing, March/April 2022

CE Social Determinants of Health: What Are They and How Do We Screen
Orthopaedic Nursing, March/April 2022

CE An Introduction to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Nursing Made Incredibly Easy!, September/October 2021

CE Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Intersection with Quality Improvement
Nursing Management, May 2021

CE The Future of Nursing: Creating a Culture of Equity
Journal of Christian Nursing, January/March 2021

 

More Resources

• Best Care Everywhere
  At Wolters Kluwer, our belief is that all people – everywhere – should have access to the best care possible. Supporting health equity through innovative thinking and solutions will help chart the course ahead.  

• Guiding Healthcare Language Towards Inclusivity and Equity 
  With COVID-19 most severely impacting communities of color, the CDC now calls racism and the healthcare inequity it causes a public health threat. But what is less recognized is that the lack of healthcare equity often stems from biases deeply embedded in the very language of healthcare.