Megan Nestor

Social Justice & Health Equity

Mrs. Phillips

September 17, 2021

Simply put, health equity is when everyone across the word has the chance to be as

healthy as they can possibly be. In relation to healthy equity, social justice is having the

viewpoint that every individual deserves the right and opportunity to accessible healthcare

(American Public Health Association, 2021). While healthcare has drastically improved even

from thirty years ago, social justice in healthcare is something that has not yet been achieved.

Social justice is a topic that seems to have become more popular in more recent times.

Social justice is something that should be of top priority to everyone, not just healthcare workers.

Social injustice can be seen in multiple different aspects and can affect everyone during their life.

Factors that are seen in social injustice are race, age, gender, sexuality and mental or physical

disability to list a few (Ignatavicius, et al., 2021). In my opinion, social justice is not something

that is just going to happen or that we would be able to reach as a society. Social justice is going

to take work and lots of discussions to occur. From the healthcare perspective, it is going to take

discussions with workers about what the social injustices that are prominent to this line of work.

It is going to require education about how everyone can play a part in fixing the social injustice

seen in healthcare. I know for my job, like most healthcare jobs, there are mandatory videos that

must be watched every year. I recently just completed those videos for 2021. Within the group of

videos, one video went into detail about how the LGBTQ+ community faces great health

inequity. For me, it is something that is becoming much more commonly discussed. I am sure for

older generations in healthcare, this information may be surprising to them. However, this is
something that I think needs continue focus and not just in relation to the LGBTQ+ community.

Education needs to continue throughout healthcare including all communities of people that face

health inequity so that one day we can all have equal access to healthcare.

A pressing issue on healthcare that works well against achieving health equity is the cost

of seeking medical care. According to the American Public Health Association, over 30% of

medical costs can be tied back to health inequities in African American, Hispanic and Asian-

American groups in the United States (2021). Research suggests that this is due to the

inaccessibility to healthcare these communities. As a result, once medical care is found, people

in these communities are often much sicker than they originally started which leads to a much

higher medical bill than expected (American Public Health Association, 2021). Our textbook

explains that focus on promoting health and managing health problems that individuals face

focus primarily on Euro-Americans (Ignatavicius, et al., 2021). While this is one problem, to find

a solution, we must look at these as individual problems. First, we must look at why or how there

is an inaccessibility to healthcare for these specific groups of people. I immediately questioned,

is it due to a lack of insurance, is it a result of knowledge of sources available or could it be a

result of living in more rural areas? If money is the big overhanging issue, it would be important

that somewhere in the chain of healthcare, individuals are being educated about what is available

to assist those that do not have insurance or are not aware of what is out there to help them reach

healthcare. The next issue within this topic would be that by the time healthcare is reached, it is

often a bigger problem than when symptoms first originally started. Once insurance and the cost

of healthcare can be addressed, education on the importance of preventive care would need to be

established with these communities. Our health and physical assessment class seemed to talk a

lot about preventive care. If education is provided, individuals may have issues diagnosed sooner
and quicker and possibly resulting a lower medical bill at the end of treatment. This may not be

the case for all, but it could help contribute to achieving health equity.

From doing the research needed for this assignment, reading various parts of the

textbook, and seeing what happens in healthcare, it still amazes me how much bias and social

injustice can occur in healthcare. It is well-known that everyone is biased about something. It is

almost human nature to be biased about something. However, time and time again, it has been

shown that it is being aware of your biases that can make a positive difference. This is where, at

least for me, I feel that education on communities that face health inequity can most benefit

healthcare. This assignment and research as emphasized to me about how much being caring and

nonjudgmental is crucial to healthcare. While we are all going to run into things that we may not

agree with in our line of work, greeting that person or situation with compassion and leaving our

judgements at the door, can be that person needs to reach their maximum health potential.
 References

American Public Health Association. (2021). “Social justice and health”. www.apha.org.

Ignatavicius, D. D., Workman, M. L., Rebar, C. R., & Heimgartner, N. M. (2021). Overview of

professional nursing concepts for medical-surgical nursing. Medical-Surgical Nursing

(10th edition). Elsevier.