Public health nursing challenge: Practicing social justice in a market justice world

The purpose of this course is to describe the professional and personal challenges of advocating for social justice in today's environment and to propose strategies for transforming social justice into social action. Despite the fact that social justice has been a core value of public health nursing for over a century, public health nurses often encounter tensions between their commitment to social justice and the market justice perspective that dominates much of American society. Public health nurses confront the consequences of social injustice on a regular basis, often serving populations that are marginalized by society and addressing health inequities that are avoidable. Commitment to social justice often drives the advocacy and political involvement of public health nurses. However, this critical public health nursing role has eroded in environments that focus on care to individuals rather than the health of populations. Public health nurses must reclaim their role as social activists if they are to impact the social and political root causes of health inequities and practice social justice from a population health perspective.

This session will define social justice within the context of public health nursing practice. It will exemplify the historical social justice underpinnings of public health nurse social reformers such as Lillian Wald and Lavinia Dock and illustrate contemporary exemplars of public health nurses translating their social justice values into social action. It will contrast the individual rights/ autonomy perspective of market justice with the common good/collective perspectives of social justice specific to public health nursing practice. The session will describe the personal and professional risks associated with a commitment to the ideal of social justice. The session will conclude with strategies to advance the role of public health nurses as social activists.