World Views of health

The nurse
According to ojin.nursingworld.org, global health issues (GHIs) require global
cooperation in response, planning, prevention, preparedness, and care that reflects
health equity issues among nations. These issues require complex inter
professional and interagency cooperation and solutions that involve governments,
non-profits, and many times include private companies and foundations. More than
ever, the response to GHIs requires a broader understanding of how connected we
are in today’s world. This article considers response to issues of emerging
infectious diseases, human trafficking, maternal new-born health; preparedness
for health inequities within a framework of social justice, equity; and mal-
distribution of health workers globally. We define and describe emerging global
health issues from a nursing perspective and offer a call to action for nurses to
increase awareness as global leaders.

The World
According to www.ncbinlm.nih.gov ,because a variety of patient system, and
provider-level characteristics, mediate health disparities, worldview constructs
overlap with other social and psychological constructs such as locus of control,
determinism, collectivism, etc., each of which may plausibly contribute to health
disparities. For instance, if an immigrant population with disproportionate rates of
tuberculosis holds beliefs that together suggest all sickness has a supernatural
origin (and thus must be addressed through supernatural means), and then one
might expect that members of that group might experience greater delays in initial
diagnosis. Such a worldview paints a holistic and intricate picture of life, including
its meaning and significance that clinicians cannot afford to dismiss and that
cannot be easily distilled into individual health beliefs. Unlike isolated health
belief constructs, worldviews relate to all of one′s life, not necessarily about health
specifically. Nevertheless, they may offer a more comprehensive way of
conceptualizing why cultures clash in health care because of conflicting
interconnected sets of assumptions. Challenging as worldviews may be, health
professions educators must learn to acknowledge their complexity so that trainees
can more effectively communicate with patients and populations who may not
share their own worldview.
Worldview is an equally important concept for educating health professionals
about their own beliefs and assumptions that may impact the care they deliver.
Health care providers play a mediating role in whether or not populations
experience health disparities. One of the great weaknesses of the medical
profession is its inability to appreciate and accept that it has a professional culture
(and subcultures) replete with its own beliefs and assumptions just like the patients
we serve.

Health care
According to www.helathypeople.gov, global health plays an increasingly crucial
role in both global security and the security of the U.S. population. As the world
and its economies become increasingly globalized, including extensive
international travel and commerce, it is necessary to think about health in a global
context. Rarely a week goes by without a headline about the emergence or re-
emergence of an infectious disease or other health threat somewhere in the world.
The 2007 world health report states that, “since the 1970s, newly emerging
diseases have been identified at the unprecedented rate of one or more per year.”
The Institute of Medicine’s 2003 report microbial threats to health stresses that, the
United States should enhance the global capacity for responding to infectious
disease threats and should take a leadership role in promoting a comprehensive,
global, real-time infectious disease surveillance system.
Rapid identification and control of emerging infectious diseases helps; Promote
health abroad, prevent the international spread of disease, protect the health of the
U.S. population.

The large scope of potential global public health threats is recognized in the
revised international health regulations 2005. With its all-hazards approach to
assessing serious public health threats. These regulations are designed to prevent
the international spread of diseases, while minimizing interruption of world travel
and trade. They encourage countries to work together to share information about
known diseases and public health events of international concern.