Nursing and Informatics for the 21st Century - Embracing a Digital World, 3rd Edition, Book 4

Nursing in an Integrated Digital World that Supports People, Systems, and the Planet

Connie Delaney, Charlotte Weaver, Joyce Sensmeier, Lisiane Pruinelli, Patrick Weber, Connie Delaney, Charlotte Weaver, Joyce Sensmeier, Lisiane Pruinelli, Patrick Weber, Connie White Delaney, Charlotte Weaver, Joyce Sensmeier, Lisiane Pruinelli, Patrick Weber

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000582246
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Pharma-, Biotechnologie- & Gesundheitsindustrie

In Nursing in an Integrated Digital World that Supports People, Systems, and the Planet, the leading-edge innovators in digital health applications, global thought leaders, and multinational, cooperative research initiatives are woven together against the backdrop of health equity and policy-setting bodies, such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization. As the authors prepared this book, the world is struggling with the core issues of access to care, access to needed medical equipment and supplies, and access to vaccines. This access theme is reflected throughout the policy and world health chapters with an emphasis on how this COVID-19 pandemic is exposing the fissures, divides, unfairness, and unpreparedness that are in play across our globe. Sustainability and global health policy are linked to the new digital technologies in the chapters that illustrate healthcare delivery modalities that nurse innovators are developing, leading, and using to deliver care to hard-to-reach populations for better population health. A trio of chapters focus on the underlying need for standards to underlie nursing care in order to capture the data needed to enable new science and knowledge discoveries. The authors give particular attention to the cautions, potential for harm, and biases that the artificial intelligence technologies of algorithms and machine learning pose in healthcare. Additionally, they have tapped legal experts to review the legal statues, government regulations, and civil rights law in place for patients' rights, privacy, and confidentiality, and consents for the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. The book closes with a chapter written by the editors that envisions the near future—the impact that the new digital technologies will have on how care is delivered, expanding care settings into community and home, virtual monitoring, and patient generated data, as well as the numerous ways that nurses' roles and technology skill sets must increase to support the global goals of equal access to healthcare.

Nursing and Informatics for the 21st Century – Embracing a Digital World, 3rd Edition is comprised of four books which can be purchased individually:

Book 1: Realizing Digital Health – Bold Challenges and Opportunities for Nursing

Book 2: Nursing Education and Digital Health Strategies

Book 3: Innovation, Technology, and Applied Informatics for Nurses

Book 4: Nursing in an Integrated Digital World that Supports People, Systems, and the Planet

Chapter 1
UN Sustainable Development Goals and Planetary Health: Alignment with Nursing Informatics

DOI: 10.4324/9781003281047-1

Teddie Potter, Carlos Alberto Faerron Guzmán, Karen A. Monsen, Carolyn M. Porta and Andre Uhl

Contents

Introduction

Public, Global, Planetary and One Health Defined

Planetary Health

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The Urgency of Now

Planetary Health Provides an Opportunity for Change

The Lens of the Anthropocene—Beyond Anthropocentric and Biologic Health

A Focus on Equity, Justice and Systems Change

Reimagining the Human–Nature Relationship

Systems Thinking/Complexity

Opportunity: Planetary Health Informatics

Hope and Urgency

References

Introduction

In 2015, the United Nations launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the bold and optimistic intent to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and promote global peace and prosperity by 2030. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has impacted the timeline and has illuminated the interconnection of human and natural systems. Likewise, it has increased our awareness that we cannot have health and well-being when massive disparities and disruptions of Earth’s natural systems persist.

To appreciate what is meant by planetary health, we start with a brief review of the historical events that shaped what would become disciplines, initiatives, partnerships, policies and efforts broadly characterized as ‘public health,’ ‘global health’ and ‘One Health.’

Public, Global, Planetary and One Health Defined

Public health as a discipline took shape as we increased our knowledge and understanding of infectious agents, the environmental factors that contributed to human disease, infection, illness or death, and the sociopolitical factors that influenced threats to health. When physician John Snow, the ‘father’ of epidemiology (the incidence, distribution and control of disease), strongly advocated for the link between something unseen in the water supply and the cholera deaths taking place around the Broad Street Pump in London in 1854, he challenged long-standing beliefs about causes of illness and death (Snow, 1855). When his actions led to the outbreak ending, he ushered in a new era of understanding and discovery with a focus on public health and prevention (Tulchinsky, 2018).

Formal colleges and schools of public health emerge some 50 years later in the early 1900s. Charles-Edward Amory Winslow, Yale’s first Chair of the Department of Public Health, defined the field of public health and his definition continues to stand the test of time:

Public health is the science and the art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control of community infections, the education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organization of medical and nursing service for the early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of the social machinery which will ensure to every individual in the community a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health.

(Winslow, 1920, p. 30)

In contrast, global health focuses on the health of the population in each country. Koplan et al. (2009) from the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) defines global health as ‘an area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving health equity for all people worldwide’ (p. 1995). Velji and Bryant (2011) offer a definition of global health that will resonate with many:

The concept of global health reaches beyond the rich-poor dichotomy and geographic boundaries and borders to the forces that separate the powerful, free, privileged populations from the population that is powerless and unfree. In its acceptance of human diversity, global health is an expression of support for the human rights enshrined in the WHO constitution, charters, and declarations and in the instruments of governance of several other nation-states.

(Velji & Bryant, 2011, p. 307)

A decade later, Salm et al. (2021) conducted a review of articles that had been published between 2009 and 2018 and included one or both terms ‘global health’ and ‘public health.’ They identified 33 definitions of global health, characterized by attention to worldwide improvements to health, operationalized principles of justice and ethical frameworks, and influence on political decision-making and resource allocations. Salm and colleagues’ review demonstrates the ongoing emergent nature of ‘global health’ as a construct representing broad and diverse efforts and perspectives focused on advancing the health of populations around the globe. Additionally, global health carries a commitment to addressing a broader array of health threats and inclusion of numerous disciplines engaged in solving those threats.

In 2007, the American professional associations of medicine and of veterinary medicine came together to summarize the concept of One Health. Asokan (2015) reports that this combined task force defined One Health as ‘a system approach which includes disciplines of human medicine, veterinary medicine, and other related scientific health disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals, and our environment’ (Asokan, 2015, p. 3). Those involved in advancing the health of humans, animals and the environment while addressing the aspects of each, and the interplay among these, often characterize their work and teams as ‘One Health.’ Zoonoses, infections spread from animals to humans, are often the focus of One Health’s related research and education. Some countries in Africa and Asia (e.g., Cameroon, Rwanda) have adopted One Health’s national platforms, encouraging respective ministries of health, wildlife and livestock to work together to address infectious zoonotic threats to health and to mitigate outbreak risks.

History demonstrates consistent growth in understanding, appreciating and addressing the complex and multifaceted interplay of risks, protections, threats and resources surrounding human, animal and environmental health. Borders quickly become irrelevant when facing situations such as zoonotic threats, environmental emergencies or regional instabilities. Global, multidisciplinary and multisectoral cooperation, whether formal or organic, has much potential to mitigate risks and to prevent severe consequences to the health of individuals, communities, nation-states and the globe.

Planetary Health

Public health, global health and One Health all discuss the root causes of illness and disease: planetary health points to the upstream human behaviors that disrupt the planet’s natural systems, thereby disrupting human health for generations to come. The 2018 Canmore Declaration defines planetary health as:

The interdependent vitality of all natural and anthropogenic ecosystems; this vitality includes the biologically defined ecosystems (at micro, meso and macro scales) that favor biodiversity; it includes the more broadly defined human-constructed social, political, and economic ecosystems that favor health equity and the opportunity to strive for high-level wellness; this definition also includes the business ecosystems that influence sustainable and health-promoting local and global commerce.

(Prescott et al., 2018, p. 3)

In summary, planetary health is a natural extension of and synergistic with previous and current ‘initiatives’ to promote health and well-being of all.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

It is undeniable that health is important to everyone, and that the health of planet Earth is critically important and interconnected with human and animal health. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) comprise a framework that enables every nation-state to track and evaluate progress (or regression) in their progress toward achieving 17 goals of health and well-being (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Since 2015, efforts at local, country, continent and global levels have comprehensively promoted health, equity, education, justice, peace and partnership, with attention toward physical, social, economic and political challenges and opportunities (United Nations, n.d.).

Progress has been made on some of the SDGs; however, more progress is needed and the 2020 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic (officially named by the World Health Organization as COVID-19) has hindered progress on many of the goals (United Nations, 2020).

One criticism of the SDGs is an apparent failure to address wealth disparities and overconsumption by a few.

Basically, the SDGs want to reduce inequality by ratcheting the poor up, but while leaving the wealth and power of the global 1 percent intact. They want the best of both worlds. They fail to accept that mass impoverishment is the product of extreme wealth accumulation and overconsumption by a few, which entails processes of enclosure, extraction, and exploitation along the way. You can’t solve the problem of poverty without challenging the pathologies of accumulation.

(Hickel, 2015)

With a deep grasp of power dynamics and a core domain focused on equity and social justice, planetary health brings a critical awareness to the SDGs that is often missing in other models of health. Planetary health solutions work at the root cause of inequities and challenge human behaviors at the source, including overconsumption of limited resources and disregard for the needs of future generations.

The Urgency of Now

We are the last generation that can prevent irreparable damage to our planet.

President María Fernanda Espinosa
Garcés (United Nations, 2019)

Not only has the pandemic impacted progress on the SDGs, climate change and other disruptions of the Earth’s natural systems are also having significant impacts. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2018), if we exceed the 1.5 degree increase in the average global temperatures that is expected to occur between 2030 and 2052, we will very likely set in motion irreversible changes to the planet’s life support systems. To remain at or below this 1.5-degree increase, there must be ‘rapid and far-reaching’ transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport and cities (IPCC, 2018).

It is important to note that climate change is only one of many human caused disruptions of the Earth’s natural systems. The Living Planet Report 2020 (World Wildlife Fund, 2020) found that global species have declined by an unprecedented 69% in less than 50 years. This World Wi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by Deborah Trautman
• Foreword by Kedar Mate
• Foreword by Howard Catton
• Preface
• Acknowledgement
• Editors
• Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 UN Sustainable Development Goals and Planetary Health: Alignment with Nursing Informatics
• 2 Health Equity and Equal Access to Care for Better Health Globally
• 3 Social Determinants of Health: Trends and Issues in Three Developing Countries
• 4 Leveraging a Unique Nurse Identifier to Improve Outcomes
• 5 Impact of Social Media on Health: An Asian Perspective
• 6 Consumer Access and Control of Data, Data Sharing, Consumer Participation
• 7 Data Security Implications in Digital Health: A Cautionary Tale
• 8 Data Security, Cybersecurity, Legal and Ethical Implications for Digital Health: A European Perspective
• 9 The Impact of Digital Technologies, Data Analytics and AI on Nursing Informatics: The New Skills and Knowledge Nurses Need for the 21st Century
• 10 The Future of Nursing in a Digital Age: Planning for Rapid Change
• 11 Envisioning Digital Health and Nursing’s Call to Lead Unparalleled Transformation of Person-centered, Connected and Accessible Care
• Index