Nursing and Sociology: Importance of Social Determinants of Health

This reflective essay highlights the importance of sociology in nursing profession and how social determinants of health impact patient care. The author shares a personal experience and discusses the need for a comprehensive care plan that addresses the social, psychological, and biological aspects of the patient. The essay also emphasizes the importance of identifying social determinants of health and developing interventions accordingly. References to relevant literature are provided.

Running head: NURSING AND SOCIOLOGY
NURSING AND SOCIOLOGY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Sociology can be described as the subject that deals with the study of the society which
has a huge influence in what each and every of the individuals living in the society do, what they
perceive about themselves and what they are in reality (Jackson & Gracia, 2014). Researchers
consider this subject to be the study of the people by the people along with how people from
different societies, cultures, laws, beliefs, organizations as well as families and religions and
other aspects of human life interact with each other (Northwood et al., 2018). Societies are seen
to play a bigger role in the lives of people and hence nursing professionals need to develop god
knowledge about the subject so that they can provide genuine care to the patients. Social
determinants of health have huge impacts on the health of lives of people and this reflective
essay would help in assisting this fact only.
While I was on placement in the clinical ward, I came across a patient who was obese and
had a BMI of 34. She lives alone with her husband, had been suffering from osteoarthritis, and
restricted mobility. Her husband had lost his job and had been living with financial difficulty
with minimal savings he had made from his previous occupation. Both of the people depend on
alcohol and drink 5 to 8 beers every day. The patient had completed until standard 8 following
which she used to work in a shop as a sales woman and her husband was a mechanic. She was
suffering from sleep apnea and breathing problems. She also has mobility issues and she failed to
conduct her functioning effectively. I was the professional on ward and after diagnosing the
issue. I saw that she was suffering from pain of her joints and therefore advised her to take
physiotherapy sessions. I also advised her some painkillers and asked her to reduce her weight as
it is resulting in additional impact on the pain of the joints. My mentor arrived at the situation,
stated that my diagnosis and treatment is incomplete, and asked a senior nurse to handle the case
and look at the social determinants of health of the patient.

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I felt quite confused at first, as I could not understand why my diagnosis was considered
wrong for the patient. I got very anxious and upset thinking that my clinical knowledge was not
up to the mark to treat patients and help them with effective advice. At the same time, I also felt
bad as i could not impress my mentor and rather I made a mistake that disappointed him. I was
feeling very low about the entire situation. I wanted to know what mistake I had made and was
becoming ore anxious and tensed. However, I calmed myself down and visited my mentor after
the patient had gone to understand what mistakes I had made. To this, my mentor clarified the
wrong initiatives that I had taken and this helped me to shed more light on the situation.
The bad part of the incident was that I could not provide the best care to the patient that
would help in the development of the quality of life of the patient. Being a healthcare
professional, I have the duty to provide evidence based care in such a way that is not only safe
but also helps the patient to overcome all barriers and fulfill their needs and requirements in life.
However, I failed immensely in fulfilling the bioethical principles. This principle states that
professionals should provide care that would be safest and would help the patient to be in his or
her best health. The good part of the experience was that I realized that I have not developed the
professional competency that is important for providing the best care to patients. I have realized
that I need to learn and research more on the topics of nursing so that I can develop skills and
knowledge that aligns with the standards of NMBA and hence provide the best care.
Social determinants of health care are an important concept of sociology that has a link
with the healthcare delivery interventions that are provided by the professionals. They are the
conditions in the environment of the individuals in which the people are born, live, learn,
functioning, wide ranges of health and quality of health outcome and risks (Williams et al.,
2014). WHO have stated that there are about ten important social determinants of health that

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have propounding impact on the health of individuals sometimes either becoming the cause or
becoming the additional catalyst of the disorders that human being suffer from. The social
determinants of health are the transports, food, social gradient, addiction, stress, social support,
early life, social exclusion, unemployment and work (Braveman & Gottlieb, 2014). I realized
that I have completely missed these aspects and did not take any initiatives to help the patients
overcome the barriers of the society that are resulting them in leading poor quality lives. The
patient and her husband had no proper education as they have not completed school and
therefore they did not have any health literacy and did not know the correct healthcare practices.
Secondly, they had no employment and therefore they were financially broken and were living
very poor quality life. The third barrier was food where their broken economic support resulted
them to buy calorie dense fast foods and they could not afford the costly nutrient rich organic
food products that accumulated in increased weight. Moreover, the little money they had were
spent of fourth factor which was addiction. They did not also have proper social support that
made them suffer a lot. Therefore, a nurse professional needs to identify the social determinants
of health and accordingly develop interventions so that not only the biological determinants but
also the social determinants are addressed (Thornton et al., 2016)
If such a situation occurs in the future, my first approach would be taking up a bio-
psycho-social model to treat the patient. It is important to care for the social, psychological as
well as the biological aspects of the patient to provide him or her with a comprehensive care plan
(Hawkins, 2018). I would never follow the bio-medical model of acre that only takes into
consideration the biological determinations keeping the treatment half-hearted and patients tend
to recover the disorders, as their social conditions do not develop.

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I would learn more concept of sociology that is linked with the healthcare services. I will
borrow more books from the library with the suggestions of my mentor and accordingly cover
the important concepts that are liked with better healthcare delivery. Moreover, I will also search
for evidence-based practices from the different databases to develop more knowledge and skills
on this topic. Moreover, I will also engage in discussions and experiences with the senior nurses
so that I can also learn about different real case studies and get guidance from them.
In this way, this reflection helped me understand the importance of sociology in nursing
profession.

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References:
Braveman, P., & Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: it's time to consider the
causes of the causes. Public health reports, 129(1_suppl2), 19-31.
Hawkins, D. (2018). Educating the Current and Future Nursing Workforce on Principles of
Health Equity: A Standardized Social Determinants of Health Screening Tool and
Education Module (Doctoral dissertation, Xavier University).
Jackson, C. S., & Gracia, J. N. (2014). Addressing health and health-care disparities: the role of a
diverse workforce and the social determinants of health. Public Health
Reports, 129(1_suppl2), 57-61.
Northwood, M., Ploeg, J., Markle‐Reid, M., & Sherifali, D. (2018). Integrative review of the
social determinants of health in older adults with multimorbidity. Journal of advanced
nursing, 74(1), 45-60.
Thornton, R. L., Glover, C. M., Cené, C. W., Glik, D. C., Henderson, J. A., & Williams, D. R.
(2016). Evaluating strategies for reducing health disparities by addressing the social
determinants of health. Health Affairs, 35(8), 1416-1423.
Williams, S. D., Hansen, K., Smithey, M., Burnley, J., Koplitz, M., Koyama, K., ... & Bakos, A.
(2014). Using social determinants of health to link health workforce diversity, care
quality and access, and health disparities to achieve health equity in nursing. Public
Health Reports, 129(1_suppl2), 32-36.

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