Caroline Ortiz, MSN, MPHRN, NC-BC, an associate professor in Pacific College’s Holistic Nursing Program, was recently cited in American Mobile’s blog on ways in which nurses can address social factors that affect health. American Mobile is a travel nursing agency that staffs healthcare facilities and hospitals across the country. Social determinants of health, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, can be broadly broken into five categories: economic, education, healthcare, social community, and neighborhoods. When any of these categories are ignored, health can suffer.
Ortiz, who is is investigating traditional healing practices amongst people who have come to the United States from Mexico as part of her doctoral dissertation, says that nursing doesn’t just go one way–nurses can and should learn from their patients as well, through deep, heart-to-heart discussions. “It’s a practice of healing in traditional medicine as a way of sharing your burden with someone who will listen,” said Ortiz. “It’s about that feeling of community—that I’m not going through this by myself.”