Reply to student with a substantive one paragraph response that includes new, related citations within the last 5 years. response must be clear, respectful, and made in the spirit of learning from others.
2 references from scholarly articles within the last five years.
Initial post ----
After exploring the World Health Organization’s (WHO) treatment of the critical determinants of health, the Water Sanitation and Health (WASH) or culture of hand hygiene stood out to me. Curiosity sparked the interest to examine further how the country of Zambia has been impacted by one or more of the critical determinants of health. According to Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), Zambia’s fifth leading cause of death is communicable diarrheal diseases which could be decreased by washing hands and having clean sanitation areas (2017). Health determinants include being born male or female. Gender disparities exist for women and their right to sanitation and have become almost inaccessible by cost, gender, and social dynamics (Nyambe et al., 2020). Those who lack access to sanitation amenities are the majority of those at or below the country’s poverty line (Nyambe et al., 2020). Furthermore, the national statistics demonstrate that women have higher poverty levels than men with the lingering customs that cause limitations on their rights to property and work (Iddi et al., 2022)(Nyambe et al., 2020).
Healthy housing with access to clean water to wash hands and food and waste removal is a key social determinant of health throughout Zambia (Iddi et al., 2022). Efforts to decrease these social determinants that the United Nations have recognized are the work of a civil society organization called the International Presentation Association, funded by the Hilton foundation of philanthropy (Rodrigues, 2018). From 2017-to 2018, they created awareness of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the district of Kaoma and Nkeyema in the Western province of Zambia (Rodrigues, 2018). Their objective was to target goals six, 13, and 15. However, they ended up identifying and working towards SDG three, where the health of the people would improve because of clean water; furthermore, resulting in the progression of SDGs four and one was progressing because the children began to go to schools with clean water and sanitation, which furthered their education and the women were able to sell their vegetables in the market because of the clean water (Rodrigues, 2018). Education was provided, and resources were given to local leaders to take over; however, the project is no longer ongoing or supported by the original benefactors (Rodrigues, 2018).
We have been learning about health determinates and how it includes not only who individuals are, such as male or female, but where they are born, grow, work, live and age. The primary health determinates in Zambia that affect the progress of the decreasing communicable diarrheal disease are both being of the female gender, being at or below the poverty line, lack of resources, and healthy housing (Iddi et al., 2022) (IHME, 2017)(Nyambe et al., 2020). WHO’s the treatment of addressing these key determinates is with the WASH initiative. In your opinion, how can Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) engage on WASH issues? First, I think that utilizing every opportunity to include the WASH initiative through promotion and monitoring within health programs and education will help maximize and sustain health impact (WHO, 2019). During the cholera outbreak in 2018, Lusaka became a crucial player in the prevention and control plan at a national level within Zambia (WHO, 2019). Secondly, disseminating the information is another example of how APRNs can engage in WASH issues by sharing health surveillance data to support prevention efforts (WHO, 2019).