Nursing Leaders Driving Health Equity - Part 2

In this episode, Dr. Steven Palazzo hosts Ms. Melissa Hinds, Dr. Jannyse Tapp, and Dr. Claire McKinley Yoder to discuss their contributions to the book, Nursing Leaders Driving Health Equity: Tackling Social and Structural Determinants. The book, developed by the inaugural NLN/Walden Social Determinants of Health & Social Change Leadership Academy cohort, offers practical tools for nurse educators and leaders to address health inequities. They highlight how the book supports the development of nurse leaders committed to advancing health equity. Listeners are encouraged to consider how nursing education can promote social justice and transform health care systems. 

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Nursing Leaders Driving Health Equity: Tackling Social and Structural Determinants. Explore this essential resource today at NLN Bookstore, powered by Wolters Kluwer: https://nln.lww.com/Nursing-Leaders-Driving-Health-Equity/p/9781975248307

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Discover how the NLN/Walden University College of Nursing Institute for Social Determinants of Health & Social Change is advancing education and leadership: https://www.nlnwaldensdoh.org/

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Applications are open through September 30 for the 2026 NLN/Walden Social Determinants of Health & Social Change Leadership Academy. Join a community of changemakers: https://apply-nln.smapply.io/prog/2026_nlnwalden_social_determinants_of_health_social_change_leadership_academy/

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Transcript

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[Music][Music] Welcome to this episode of NLN podcast Nursing Edge Unscripted. I'm your host,  Dr. Steven Palazzo, a member of the editorial board for Nursing Education Perspectives. In  this episode, we will continue our discussion of the book Nursing Leaders Driving Health Equity  Tackling Social and Structural Determinants. My guests today are Dr. Melissa Hinds,  Dr. Claire McKinley Yoder, and Dr. Jannyse Tapp, three members of the inaugural NLN-Walden  University College of Nursing Institute for Social Determinants of Health and Social Change,  who are contributors to this book. The book can be purchased on the NLN website through the NLN  bookstore. Welcome to all three of you. Thank you. Thank you. I'd like to start by asking you  to discuss the significance of the book and the significance of the book to nursing education and  to the growth of your leadership in this area. I'll start thank you again for having us  today. Definitely so excited to speak about this book, this work that we did. We spent a lot of  time on it and we are just so happy to be here. But I think that this book really is a critical  addition to just the growing body of literature that relates to health equity and social  determinants of health. And the great perspective is coming from the nursing lens. So having that  different perspective I think is what gives this book a little bit more significance. It's really  one of the few texts that really speaks from nursing leaders from a clinical academic and  policy standpoint. So thinking about it that way and also just helps to really operationalize what  we mean by social and structural determinants of health. It really can be used for nursing  education as a blueprint for faculty, students even nurses, practitioners and just moving from  thinking about what social determinants of health to the actionable items that we can do to advance  health equity and social determinants of health in our respective practices. And so having an  opportunity to work on his book really just helped to deepen my understanding of leadership and what  that means in this health equity space. And so it just helped to further advance my interest  in social and structural determinants of health. I agree and and add to that I think because  so many of us, you know, as educators or whatever space that we sit in, we're often very siloed and  so we don't really understand the bigger picture, right? The bigger impact that nurses in whatever  level can play in the work that we're doing. And so for me, the book really helped break it  down at some levels where it could be macro and it could be micro because we all very much sit  in different spaces. And honestly, we have more authority than we actually think that we have. We  have a larger voice than we think that we have and really allowing nurses to have that understanding,  right? To be able to to see it from a lens that they often don't see it is really helpful. And I  think as policy changes, as what we see around us changes, it's really important that we still lean  into the thing that's the most important to us as nurses, which is the person. And so at whatever  level you can keep leaning into the person, I think this book can really lend to that. It  is a social determinant. It is focused on change. And so as a nurse, how are you a change leader and  really in the society that you live in? Thank you. Yeah, I agree with both of you. One thing that I  really appreciate about the group who wrote the book is that we are all from very different , we  we kind of cross the the breadth of of nursing. We have people we had people who were teaching in  at the the associate degree, bachelor's, DNP, and PhD levels and really also people who were  really involved in policy. I know Melissa had a had a big role in New York with mental  health and so both the policy and practice and education all together. I think that that helps  the book have relevance to all types of nursing. And I think that for me, my growth as a  leader with writing this book, I learned so much from my colleagues about writing, you know during  the writing process. But it also you know gave us this opportunity to really think about where should nursing be going instead of you know where have we been. So some of it's looking back  but also thinking about like social and structural determinants of health. How do we really integrate  those experiences so that our future nurses nurse practitioners researchers are really  putting are affecting the social determinants of health? Not just recognizing them and maybe  you know doing something minor, but really having major effects so that we can reach health equity.  That goes into the next question. I think when we just asking you to discuss the application of the  book for research, dissemination and advancing social and structural determinants of health and  social change, especially some of the exemplars like scoping reviews and bibliometric analysis.  You know, how can those exemplars be used by nursing faculty for their research course?  Mhm. Well, you know, our bibliometric analysis, which was really looking at racism and  where it is in the in the nursing literature. That really came out of a discussion that we had as a  group where people were saying like, anytime the word racism is there in the title or the  abstract, you know, we're getting push back from reviewers. And so we explored what is what's been  written about racism in the nursing literature and found that it really wasn't used prior to 2020,  even though it's really foundational to those social determinants of health. And  so there's really this significant bias in the system even though we don't as nurses often  want to acknowledge it. I feel like there are some changes that are starting, but I think that  the bibliometric analysis and scoping reviews take this broad view of what what is out there so that  we kind of have a place to start. And they're both pretty new forms of research in the last 20 years,  but you're seeing they're really exploding. And I think it there there's a need for more  programs earlier in the pipeline to be really introducing students to research so that we can  you know advance the numbers of researchers from diverse backgrounds because they're going  to ask diverse questions and they're going to they're going to look at at the research through  a different lens. So incorporating these types of things earlier on in nursing education can be  really helpful. That's great information and great advice too, especially for those with prospective  researchers. Would you discuss the application of the book in the clinical setting now moving  from the research setting for advancing social and structural determinants of health and social  change in clinical practice? Yeah. I mean, I think for me at least I'll kick this off. I think for me  one of the most important things as I considered what I was going to do for my leadership project  for the NLN was thinking about it from a large perspective. Right? So as Claire mentioned,  you know, we have an impact throughout the state of New York or where I sit has an impact across  the state of New York. And one of the things that I think we were discovering was there  was no commonality in how people were referring to things or how people were understanding things and  really bringing it back to that baseline level of what is social determinants, how do you actually  address it and then what are some resources that you can use. I think one of the things that most  people struggle with in both clinical settings is like, well, you're asking me to do this thing but  how do I do this thing? Like what is the tool you're going to give me to do this thing? So  really helping them to have some understanding of tools that are available and how they could apply  them in very practical ways because that is the other push back, right. How can I apply this? You're  expecting me to do all this stuff and you know I have this case load that's like really large? And  again, bringing it back to reality. We do understand that you know as clinicians, as providers you have  a heavy burden. You have a full plate. Right. Social determinants is foundational to really providing competent, right, care. Not even exemplary care. Competent care. And so really,  how can we in our settings, regardless of your setting, really look at the person  as a person and then build from there because I think as nurses, we love to say person-  centered care, but sometimes we remove ourselves from the person. And so, you know, social determinants,  understanding what they are, understanding how they impact people in your community, in your  clinical settings is an important thing to remind people of or introduce them to if they really  have not spent time understanding it. Right. And I think, just piggybacking on what Melissa said and  speaking from the clinical perspective, it has to start from the academic portion of it. So in order  to truly be able to prepare our future nurses and future practitioners to be able to work toward  advancing health equity and recognizing the impact of SDOH, we have to start foundationally. So,  Melissa mentioned the foundation of care is SDOH. We have to recognize that and the impact well,  we have to start at the foundational level. So in school and so the portion of my project was  really about learning how for students to be able to incorporate SDOH screening into their clinical  documentation. So at my institution it was a discussion how are we integrating SDOH in your  course? Is it in this class? Is it in this class? And making sure that we're mapping it in and  integrated into all courses. And so every specialty had something different. And so  the idea was that if we start to foundationally from the health assessment, this is something that  you need to be thinking about as a future nurse practitioner, how is it that we think about SDOH?  And then once we get to learn what SDOH means as we integrate it throughout the curriculum,  then in your final practicums, being able to say, okay, this is what I learned and this is  how I'm applying it. So your hospital-based and your clinic based settings, they probably are  getting that information about SDOH, they probably have some surveys and screeners, but how many of  our students are actually looking at it? Are you asking these questions? So the idea that I  had was that this is an a part of your clinical documentation. It's required for every single  patient, no matter what they present with. And so that you can start to think about the impact  that SDOH has on every single person regardless of their presentation. That's great. Thank you. So,  one of the questions I think or one of the main areas of interest that our listeners are going  to want to know is how can they use this book in their courses. And some of our nurse educators will  also want to know how we can use this for faculty development. What are your suggestions in this  area? Well, I will say as the nurse educator from my facility is that it's a great resource. I think  you know our chief nurse officer has really also reviewed this book and she she understands the  importance of the book. I think as nurses again, we really have to understand what it is that we  are what our charge is as nurses and and I think whatever we can do to help not only our students,  ourselves, but the people above us because leadership is a major part of any organization.  And so I think having the perspective in this book where you have it at all levels,  right? From you as the clinician, you as the educator, you as the person with authority to  to maybe change policies. It's an important thing for I think anyone any nurse in any position  to really understand that and to share that with the people around them. And that was one of the  things I think this book can really do. So even if you don't feel like, well, I'm not in policy,  that's true. We all impact policy in some way. I'm sure you all got emails recently from some  nursing organization asking you to sign a petition to to do something. That is policy! So you may not  see your impact, but you all play a role in policy. And I think this book can do that.  And I think that's the beauty of this book, too. So it's not just from one perspective. So we're  talking about practice, we're talking about education, we're talking about research and  policy. And so regardless of what course it is that you may teach, there's some aspect of this  book that will have relevance. And I think that really is the beauty and how any nursing educator  would be able to use it in their courses. Yeah, personally I plan on using aspects  of the book in my senior leadership class in the pre-licensure program. I found it  very user friendly for that level and I'm excited to start exploring it a little bit more this fall.  That's great to hear. Yeah. You know, another way that it could be used is really around faculty  development. So, there are questions for each chapter. And I can I can just definitely see this  like even within my own university. You know, a lot of people maybe don't come in, they come into  nursing education at first with either not much experience or they have a ton of experience but  they don't have that theoretical background. And so you know this can really help with  kind of faculty development. What are, you know, generating ideas, thinking about thinking more  deeply about some of these issues that we need so that we can be great educators and you  know be sparking, asking those those important questions of our students that that cause them  to think critically. I want to thank you three so much for joining us. I think this is an important  conversation. It's an important book. I appreciate your time and expertise and helping us broaden our  understanding of your work and how we can begin to introduce this in our own institutions in whatever  way that's most appropriate. To our listeners, I really encourage you to please take a look at this  book, Nursing Leaders Driving Health Equity, Tackling Social and Structural Determinants.  And again, you can find it on the NLN website in the bookstore. And I think you'll find it very,  very useful for the work that you're doing in your courses and in your programs. So again,  I want to thank the three of you for joining us. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.[Music]