Justice in Health - Hardcover

by Camille Burnett (Author)

Chapter One: Collision of Contexts and Conscience

This chapter provides an overview and global introduction to the content. In the introduction, understanding of core concepts of public health, equity, justice, and health is established. This chapter centers on unpacking the meaning of health, how health is understood and misunderstood, and most importantly how health is created. Its impact in producing outcomes across the determinants of health are examined across an ecological spectrum of the populations, communities, and the system of care. The conceptual exploration of just health and what the creation of a more just system of health means is introduced and situated in relation to our society and why health matters.

Chapter Two: Contextualizing and Situating Race and Health in the United States

This chapter explores the historical role of nursing within social justice movements. Key figures whose work formed the foundation of nursing practice in social justice and advocacy are accentuated. The roots of nursing practice are critically examined to shed light on where nursing practice is now and where it needs to be in the future. This discussion is contextualized within the current climate of health care, health needs, and governmental mandates that point to the future of health care. The role of the nurse in shaping the future of nursing and the future of health care is at the heart of this chapter's discussion. It pulls in current and relevant call-to-action reports such as the future of nursing, nursing 2020, and beyond; healthy people 2030; and the year of the nurse to inform the discussion. Specific conclusions about the role of the nurse, relevant competencies now and in the future are presented based on the culmination of these areas.

Chapter Three: Frameworks for Framing Justice in Health

This chapter is deeply philosophical and driven by the introduction and exploration of key theories most critical to meet the health and well-being challenges we face as a nation. Highlighted are discussions of critical theories and perspectives that include but are not limited to Feminist Theory and Intersectionality, Post-colonial and Emancipatory Inquiry, Social Justice, Structural Violence, and Structural Justice. Discussion about the social determinants of health is at the forefront to help introduce the reader to contextual causes that determine health guided by these various theoretical perspectives. This chapter serves to synthesize structural and root causes through exposing the hidden realities of power, privilege, and social identity.

Chapter Four: Health Equity and Critical Health Issues

This chapter dives into exposing critical root causes that perpetuate health disparities such as race, poverty, mass and youth incarceration, violence against women including intimate partner violence, and human trafficking. It also examines issues that determine health such as access to care, food, housing, transportation, and insurance. Beyond identification of these issues, this chapter makes the connection to earlier perspectives discussed in Chapter 3 to extend and situate health in relation to structural drivers and causes. It is connecting the dots beyond the healthcare system that lead to a deepening of understanding of how health happens across disparate populations and in aggregate populations. It also begins to frame what a health equity systems approach could look like and what must be considered.

Chapter Five: Culture of Health

This chapter starts to explore how to create a healthcare system without walls. This chapter reframes the current beliefs of what a healthcare system is toward what it can be within the concept of building a system of care without walls. A healthcare system without walls is discussed by identifying structural obstacles and gaps wi

Back Jacket

Inequities and health disparities are the greatest and most pressing social issues of our time. This book explores public health practice through the critical lens of social and structural justice by examining our approach to health and what it means to be healthy, systemically and structurally.
Through recent events, the raw reality of health disparities and inequities have been exposed. These events are earmarked by COVID-19's decimating and disparate impacts on Black and Brown populations during one of the greatest social movements of our time to end racism. Since this very public explosion of intersecting forms of oppression and inequitable suffrage, many have clamored to make sense of it, to reframe our narratives toward action, and re-envision what progress and change could look like. This text is positioned as a tool to help professionals dismantle old ways of thinking while reconstructing new ones that can be more responsive in meeting the realities of today.
The author challenges the reader to think about public health more deeply and pragmatically as the space for reconciling solutions to these poignant health issues. This requires the exploration of an ideological shift in how we think of health, how we prepare healthcare providers outside of an antiquated sick care system, and how we prioritize the determinants of health across a re-imagined continuum of care. The scope of this book ranges from a historical and structural examination of our beliefs about health to perceiving a more just system of care where health is intentionally co-created toward this aim. It intentionally explores health along the lines of equity and through the broader lens of the social determinants of health to shed light on the opportunity in this moment that public health creates for health care.
Justice in Health is a timely and important resource for healthcare professionals (pre- and post-licensure) and healthcare decision-makers. The book also appeals more widely to instructors, academics, researchers, and students across disciplines of nursing, medicine, public heath, sociology, and social work.

Author Biography

Camille Burnett, PhD, MPA, APHN-BC, RN, BSc.N, DSW, CGNC, FAAN is a professor and innovative thought leader whose work and teachings critically address determinants of health, equity and structural justice. Dr. Burnett is the Founder and Principal of Burnett Innovation LLC, a consulting firm providing expertise in public health, health equity, and health and structural justice and health policy. Dr. Burnett conducts research, education, and evaluation and oversees health equity and population health initiatives toward the co-creation of health equity and innovative justice solutions that attend to structural and policy drivers of health and opportunity for vulnerable populations.

Dr. Burnett has extensive professional experience within the US and Canadian healthcare systems; in academia, public health, public health management, and research; and as a private consultant. She has held provincial public health administrator leadership positions in Canada and academic administrator leadership positions in the United States. Dr. Burnett has held community engagement and service appointments on a multitude of local, national, and international boards, and selected appointments as a national policy think tank appointee and internationally as one of only 30 International Council of Nursing 2019 Global Nurse Leaders. Dr. Burnett holds several professional affiliations; is the recipient of 21 teaching excellence awards and four university-wide teaching awards; has published 22 scientific articles, 4 book chapters, and 1 book, and her work has been highlighted in over 60 media stories; and participates in numerous speaking engagements and presentations to a variety of audiences worldwide.