33^rd Euro Nursing & Medicare Summit

Biography

Biography: Ann Hemingway

Abstract

Addressing health inequities and promoting wellbeing has been identified as an important area for nursing practice and research both in the UK and internationally, both within the nursing and health care literature and within national and international scrutiny and discussion documents. Nurses are critical as they act both as individual care co-ordinators and team leaders, nurses bring people centred care closer to the communities in which they are needed most. Indeed nurses may be members of deprived or marginalised communities and as such have intimate knowledge of the determinants of health in local areas. In addition nurses are often first to respond to emergencies and often provide care to under-served populations and communities around the world. Nurses can be engaged across the spectrum of public health interventions, this paper will outline how nurses can help to reduce inequalities and inequities in health and specifically outline the areas which nurses can help to tackle in relation to the social determinants of health for instance by targeting vulnerable populations to improve health outcomes and access to services.

This paper will explore the importance of nurses being able to ‘see’ via a first person perspective the life world of another being as caring insiders; as opposed to potentially adopting an objectifying, third person perspective. A philosophical underpinning for this practice will be presented, the life world perspective. The paper will suggest that although experienced practitioners may well be integrating this approach into their practice as we require the reduction of inequities in health to be a focus for nurses and nursing students working across hospital, the community and primary care internationally; we also need to offer a philosophical underpinning which helps build these approaches into nurses caring practice.