Understanding Population Health and Its Priorities

Defining Population Health and Its Priorities

For each thread, students must support their assertions with at least 2 scholarly citations in addition to the Bible in APA format. Each reply must incorporate at least one scholarly citation in APA format. Any sources cited must have been published within the last five years. Acceptable sources include the textbook, the Bible, and scholarly articles. Student 1 Response “Population health is defined as the distribution of health outcomes within a population, the health determinates that influence distribution, and the policies and interventions that effect the determinants” . Population health includes all people. The overall purpose of population health is to empower people with wellness and not just disease prevention. According to Nash et al, 2019, the goal of population health is to continue keeping people healthy as wellness is a priority. By encouraging wellness, we must reduce unhealthy behaviors or health risks. Some of these examples include smoking, and a lack of exercise. Another priority in population health is managing chronic illnesses. “The present and predicted burden of chronic disease is the strongest signal that current strategies for helping people get well and stay well, are ineffective). Chronic illnesses include issues that are ongoing and affect everyday life. “Chronic illness is the subjective experience of loss of health due to chronic disease, which includes mental illnesses”. This is one way population health addresses a health care disparity. Another way is by urging excellent care be a status quo for all people. Population Health aims to assure access “to quality health care for all populations, regardless of insurance status, with primary focus on health maintenance and prevention to decrease health risks” (Nash et al., 2019, p. 7). According to our book, Nash et al, 2019, says that policies and laws regulate certain behaviors at the public level. A huge piece of population health is public health. These are not to be used interchangeably. Population health supports state and national initiatives and interventions that address the health needs. “Public health is a core element of population health that focuses on determinants of health in communities, preventative care, interventions and education, and individual and collective health advocacy and policies” (Nash et al., 2019, p. 8). Population health helps guide the community to make changes on specific concerns. Some good examples given by our book include encouraging the use of infant care seats and seat belts. Two other examples would be promoting exercise and smoking cessation. Population Health is supported by the state level. Two examples our book gives are regarding Vermont and Wisconsin. Vermont has an initiative to increase funds to social services. Wisconsin is referred to as the “healthiest state.” They have an initiative to improve overall health. They want to “improve health across the lifespan and achieve health equity by eliminating health disparities among various segments of the population” (Nash et al. 2019, p. 10). Implementing initiatives can difficult. It requires collaboration of many professionals and policy makers However, these two states are off to a great start. 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies” (New International Bible, 1978/2011). To me, this relates a lot to population health. The goal is not to treat you when you are sick, but to prevent illness from happening. We treat our bodies as temples by giving it positive fuel. For example, this can be obtaining a healthy diet, increasing exercise, surrounding ourselves with good people, and creating a healthy relationship with God. Personally, since becoming a nurse I have seen first-hand what improper diet and exercise can do to your body. I have also seen what surrounding yourself with negativity can do to your mental health. Our goal should be to take care of our bodies and promote a healthy lifestyle. References: Duggleby, W., HeunJung Lee, Nekolaichuk, C., & Fitzpatrick-Lewis, D. (2021). Systematic review of factors associated with hope in family careers of persons living with chronic illness. Journal of Advanced Nursing (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), 77(8), 3343–3360. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14858 Nash, D., Fabius, R., Skoufalos, A., & Oglesby, W. (2019). Population health: Creating a Culture of Wellness (3rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. New International Bible. (2011). Zondervan. (Original work published 1978). Student 2 Our textbook defines population health as “the distribution of health outcomes within a population, the health determinants that influence distribution, and the policies ad interventions that affect the determinants” (Fabius, 2021, p. 4). This definition is broad and includes outcomes, health determinants, and policies but does not include who is accountable, who is responsible, or the roles of healthcare workers to obtain the goals or the outcomes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define population health as an interdisciplinary approach that bridges practice into policy to make positive changes. Partnerships are made between public health, businesses/ industries, academia, healthcare, governmental entities, etc. to achieve health outcomes. This approach to population health “brings significant health concerns into focus and addresses ways that resources can be allocated to overcome the problems that drive poor health conditions in the population” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020). This definition by the CDC identifies the attributes of population health being able to identify health concerns, bring those concerns to the public and identify ways and resources needed to remediate the problem(s) to live well and as healthy as possible. Prevention strategies for obtaining positive health outcomes is a focus of population health. This is done through primary prevention planning, secondary prevention services, and tertiary prevention (Fabius, 2021). Population health has identified that health and wellness are influenced by where an individual lives, works, learns, and plays. This is defined as social determinants of health (SDOH). Healthcare disparities can be identified in vulnerable groups that goes beyond race and/ or ethnicity. Healthcare disparities are linked to SDOH and include social, educational, physical, economic, and historical discriminations (Frasso et al., 2021). Racism, stigma, and bias also contribute to healthcare disparities and those minorities who experience discrimination leads to mistrust and a lower utilization of healthcare resources (Frasso et al., 2021). Population health has highlighted to the public healthcare disparities that experienced by vulnerable individuals and/ or groups. Healthcare disparities are not a different set of illness from the general population but the susceptibility to illness is greater and higher due to “a broad range of environmental conditions” (Casey, 2016, p. 6). Social and economic inequalities, social bias, institutional racism, lower education standards, poverty, and poor environmental conditions can directly bring about ill health and/ or promote unhealthy habits/ behaviors that lead to poor health (Casey, 2016). Population health helps promote equity to obtain health by promoting and implementing programs, policies, and resources when needs are identified. The four pillars of population health (care management, quality and safety, public health, and health policy) ensure that population health is able to support state and national initiatives and interventions to address health needs. Providing evidenced based care management and education can help patients becoming partners with care providers, increase adherence to treatment and reduce health care costs by better management of chronic illness. Through quality and safety initiatives partnerships between patients and providers allow a transparency that allows public attention and awareness of quality and safety to be emphasized to reduce errors and improve care. Public health offers opportunities to identify health determinants, health disparities, burden of disease and to address efforts to improve the concerns identified through research and through policy and legislature development and implementation. Health policy allows for data gathering and comparison for consumers, healthcare providers, insurers, and government entities to ensure accountability and improvements in care Population health is not a new concept to our era. In the Old Testament, God gave specific instructions to his people of what they can and cannot eat to ensure no diseases or illnesses are transmitted. God gives instructions on body wastes to keep his people clean and from spreading illness). Instructions are given in Leviticus 13:1-59 on skin diseases and include isolation and quarantine. Social and financial responsibilities for taking care of family are mentioned in the New Testament. “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (New American Standard Bible, 1960/1995, 1 Timothy 5:8). References Casey, B. R. (2016). Addressing health care disparities - Why it is important? (ACGME CLER Program). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Population health training: What is population health? CDC. Retrieved August 25, 2021, from

l Fabius, R. J. (2021). The population health promise.  Population health: Creating a culture of wellness (3rd ed., pp. 48–70). Jones & Bartlett Learning. New American Standard Bible. (1995). The Lockman Foundation; YouVersion. (Original work published 1960) These were questions asked and students had to respond to questions.. Define population health and identify its major attributes. Discuss how population health addresses healthcare disparities. Discuss how population health helps support state and national initiatives and interventions that address health needs.