Promoting Health Equity in the Latinx Community, Locally and Globally: The Duke University School of Nursing Model.

It is imperative that nurses are equipped to promote the health and well-being of diverse populations in United States, including the growing Latinx community, which experiences significant health disparities. This article summarizes the values, programs, and impact of the Duke University School of Nursing Latinx Engagement Health Equity Model. Collaborative partnerships with diverse community partners addressing Latinx populations across the life span were developed, spanning the education, research, and service missions of the university. Programs were rooted in cultural values and were delivered through diverse interprofessional teams and with support from the university. Programs included local and global immersion programs, volunteer work, courses in Medical Spanish, community engaged research projects, and leadership in coalitions. These models have resulted in favorable outcomes for learners, faculty and staff, and the Latinx community more broadly and can serve as a model for strategies to promote health equity at schools of nursing.

LATIN-19: A Grassroots Coalition to Mitigate the Effect of COVID-19 on the Latinx Community in North Carolina.

BACKGROUND: Social inequity is a primary driver of health disparities, creating multiple barriers to good health. These inequities were exacerbated during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, with Latinx communities suffering more than others. Grassroots collaborations have long existed to address disparities. OBJECTIVE: We describe the creation and work of the Latinx Advocacy Team and Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19 (LATIN-19; http://latin19.org/), a multisector coalition in North Carolina created to address the unique challenges of COVID-19 in the Latinx community. METHODS: We discuss challenges and solutions that LATIN-19 addressed and the impact of LATIN-19 on community partners and members. RESULTS: LATIN-19 learned of challenges including, lack of awareness, need for data systems to track disparities, the need to increase access to resources, the need for policy changes, and the need to coordinate services by community organizations. CONCLUSIONS: LATIN-19 represents a grassroots organization that has had an impact on community and community organizations that spans beyond COVID-19.

Better together: Coalitions committed to advancing health equity.

The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 report identifies coalitions as a driving force for advancing health equity. Five coalitions provided insight into their accomplishments, lessons learned, and role in advancing health equity. The exemplar coalitions included Latinx Advocacy Team and Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19, Black Coalition Against COVID, Camden Coalition, National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations, and The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. While all exemplar coalitions, credited relationship building and partnerships to their success, they used unique strategies for striving to meet their populations' needs, whether the needs arose from COVID-19, racial and/or ethnic disparities, socioeconomic disparities, or other barriers to health. Research and policy implications for coalitions are discussed. Nurses play a critical role in every highlighted coalition and in the national effort to make health and health care more equitable.

Improving the Health of Public Housing Residents Through a Housing Authority and Nursing School Partnership.

The connection between health and housing is well-established. People who are precariously housed have worse health than those who have stable housing arrangements.- Persons moving into public housing have a higher illness burden than the general population, and public housing residents engage in less healthy behaviors, which contribute to public housing residents having poorer health than persons living in other housing situations. Public housing authorities and residents can benefit from authentic and constructive relationships with academic partners; academicians and students can benefit from engaging in partnerships with housing authorities and residents to better understand the connection between housing and health. This article describes the well-established relationship between the Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON) and the Durham Housing Authority (DHA), the evolution of that relationship, our collaborative work in improving the health of DHA residents while advancing nursing education and science, and lessons learned.

A Continued Professional Development Nursing Partnership in a Remote Bolivian Hospital.

Bolivia's recent enactment of universal health care to increase access and delivery of health services can increase health care demands in underresourced, rural communities. We describe how a global intradisciplinary partnership assessed changing health care needs in a recently expanded hospital in the Bolivian Amazon Basin. The collaboration resulted in designing and implementing an evidence-based triage training program to improve rapid assessment and health outcomes. The interdisciplinary triage training of 19 nurses and physicians showed a significant improvement in their knowledge and implementation capacity, as demonstrated by pre- and posttest scores. As an intradisciplinary team, trainees significantly increased consistency in triage assignments in nine of 10 clinical triage posttraining vignettes. We share insights to overcome unseen challenges and improve future data-driven, evidence-based global implementation projects. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2021;52(3):142-149.].

Measuring Distress Levels of Refugee Women to Enhance Community-Based Psycho-social Interventions.

The purpose of this investigation was to gain an understanding of the levels of distress in resettled refugee women as a basis for the development of improved community based interventions to enhance the resettlement experience. A convenience sample of female refugees (n = 23) in a southern US city were interviewed using a socio-demographic questionnaire; the Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15); and semi-structured, exploratory questions. Results showed consistently high levels of distress, indicated by responses to the RHS-15. Women ages 19-25 and over 50 displayed the highest risk. Categories of stressors included a lack of access to health and psycho-social support services, difficulty with communicating in the English language, and social isolation. In addition, women reported that a lack of trained interpreters contributes to reduced access to health and social service, causing further distress.

Supporting Health and Well-Being for Resettled Refugee Women: The Global Women's Group.

Women refugees arrive in the United States often having experienced extreme levels of poverty, deprivation, and violence, including gender-based violence, which can severely affect their physical and psychological health and well-being. A women's group was initiated to improve the health and well-being of refugee women in Durham, North Carolina, through a collaboratively designed, culturally appropriate health literacy intervention for women based on mutually identified needs; to empower them to seek preventive health services and screening through knowledge and skills about health needs and access to care; and to create an environment for the development of a supportive social/peer network for the prevention of social isolation and mental health issues related to the refugee experience.