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ATTACHED INSTRUCTION Purpose The purpose of this activity is to deepen learning through reflective inquiry. It will allow for expansion in self-awareness, identification of knowledge gaps, and assessment of learning goals. Course outcomes This assessment enables the student to meet the following course outcomes: 1. Critique the history, formation, and implementation of local, state, and national health policies. 2. Critically analyze health policies from the perspectives of stakeholders and the profession of nursing. 3. Demonstrate collaborative leadership as a political resource in the development and implementation of health care policy to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes. 4. Build political competency to enhance and support professional identity formation. 5. Advocate for value-based, equitable, and ethical health policies at the micro-, meso-, and macrosystem levels. 1. Write a brief 1-2 paragraph weekly reflection addressing the questions posed in the Reflect section of each weekly module. Edit your Reflection to include each weekly reflection. 2. Include the following sections in your Reflection. Week 1: Select a Tweet from the Twitter feed that best represents the essence of political advocacy on the part of a nurse. Discuss the following questions: 1. Provide one specific example of how you achieved the weekly objectives. 2. Locate a tweet from the Twitter feed that is relevant to one of the weekly objectives. Describe the political position of the tweet on a specific population. Discuss your position on the political stance of the tweet. 3. Articulate how your perspective has changed as a result of your learning this week. Week 2: Review the Twitter feed. Select a health care policy issue that addresses an important social determinate in your community or one addressed in the Tweet and answer the following questions: 2. Provide one specific example of how you achieved the weekly objectives. 2. Describe how the issue impacted the health and wellness for the community? 2. As a practice scholar, what actions would you take to see if this issue is present in your community? 2. Describe how you could bring the issue to the attention of those in power to influence improved awareness or change? 2. As a part of your personal political competency plan, describe a new insight or skill you learned which could improve your political capital. Week 3: 2. Provide one specific example of how you achieved the weekly objectives. 2. Describe a single resource in the course that helped you understand a particular concept. What was the concept and the resource and how to did your understanding change? 2. From the learning activities this week, describe one aspect of this weeks activities you could implement in your practice today. Week 4: Reflect upon your Week 4 learning journey in NR708 and consider the following in one or two paragraphs. 2. Provide one specific example of how you achieved the weekly objectives. 2. Describe one element of this weeks learning activities that you can implement in your practice today. 2. Locate a tweet from the Twitter feed that is relevant to one of the weekly objectives. Provide your perspective on the Tweet based on your learning for the week. Week 5: Reflect upon your Week 5 learning journey in NR708 and consider the following in one or two paragraphs. 2. Provide one specific example of how you achieved the weekly objectives. 2. Provide one specific example of how your professional identity has changed as a result of this education. 2. Does your organization support your emerging and new professional identity? 2. Reflect on how you can make your learning work for you at the micro, meso, and macro systems level. Week 6: Reflect upon your Week 6  learning journey in NR708 and consider the following in one or two paragraphs. 2. Provide one specific example of how you achieved the weekly objectives. 2. Compose a Tweet (140 characters) that best describes the importance of political competency for DNP students. Week 7: Reflect upon your Week 7 learning journey in NR708 and consider the following in one or two paragraphs. 2. Provide one specific example of how you achieved the weekly objectives. 2. Reflect on the knowledge gaps you had coming into the course and share the top three things you have learned that will shape your future as a political advocate. I ATTACHED EACH WEEKLY DISCUSSION BOARD. YOU CAN ACCESS THEM TO GUIDE YOURSELF. REMEMBER IT IS 1 OR 2 PARAGRAPHS PER WEEK. PLEASE ON THE SAME PAPER ANSWER EACH WEEK SEPARATELY FOR EXAMPLE WEEK 1 ……. WEEK 2 ….. 2 Health care policy Advocate Student Name University Course Professor Name Date Hello Dr. Liter and class Q1. The time that I was to be politically involved Motivating patients and individuals is an essential aspect of nursing in eliminating the social inequalities associated with health care. The health care policy concludes with resource allocation decisions for a specific area of ​​government, members of particular groups, and community members (Annesley, 2019). An essential qualification of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) is political skills that will make nurses voices heard in shaping health care policy. DNP plays an advocate in seeking better health care outcomes for all patients and reduces the global epidemic. I have had the opportunity to represent my patients at the clinic where they and their families do not receive the proper care of other unique items in the hospital. I have had many opportunities to promote particular policies and treatment laws by extending our Senator, but sadly I have been busy with the funeral of my late relative. Trying to fulfill this role has given me a deeper understanding of how important I am as a nurse in health care policies, which has improved my understanding of health policies affecting health systems, consumers, governments, and health workers. According to Loversidge (2016), health policies success is associated with the ability of patients to achieve quality health. Q2.political competency areas that need to be developed Political skills are new to me as a DNP expert; however, the regions of opportunity and growth in this area will begin with self-awareness. Recreation responds to political concerns and difficulties in nursing by providing an actual reason for the change (Nicolas et al., 2021). These stages of development include skill and attention as I grow as a leader. Political appropriateness provides knowledge of the problems and beneficial changes that may affect policy. The first section understands the state and city-sponsored health care proposal and knows how it affects the care I provide to my patients. Next, learning to know my legislatures and their policies will help me grow better care. Communicating with local communities and political leaders about community concerns can help promote party building. Johnson (2021) used constructive relationships as the first step in making technology by recognizing and understanding the intentions of politicians. Political leadership skills require a person to focus on communication, self-awareness and use the art of relaxation and foresight to set and improve priorities. As a DNP scholar, I will need to develop my political skills by articulating my goals, creating the need for change, and encouraging the community to promote development in specific contexts. Q3.Campaign for Action tweet The feed on Twitter this week had a lot of exciting topics. I was interested in the Campaign for Action tweet focusing on the past 500,000 lives due to COVID-19 and the need for vigilance and vaccination for those who should take it. There is still a significant segment of the public uncertain about the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine. Attwell (2021) found that about 25\% of the worlds population still disagreed with the availability of vaccines, especially those who did not believe in science and thought that the virus was a deceptive method. Publicly sending a message to people about the need to protect themselves and loved ones from coronavirus is essential, which is achieved by vaccination. Q4.My thoughts and opinions about the Tweet Healthcare providers are obliged to raise awareness of the benefits of vaccination to help alleviate the fears of those who are unsure by encouraging them to be vaccinated to prevent the spread of coronavirus (Atwell 2021). As a patient advocate, a DNP specialist should seek ways to educate and develop communication in a simple way that attracts the general publics interest. A DNP specialist can use many opportunities to communicate with patients and the public. An inexpensive and straightforward way is to use social media platforms such as Twitter to educate, connect, and encourage patients and the community. It is crucial to develop nurses skills concerning social media because this is a flexible way of communicating between health care providers. Reference 1. Annesley (2019). The implications of health policy for nursing. British Journal of Nursing, 497 2. Attwell, Lake, Sneddon, Gerrans, Blyth & Lee (2021). Converting the maybes: Crucial for a successful COVID-19 vaccination strategy. 37 3. Nicolas, Breakey, Tagaliareni, Simmonds (2021). Climate change and population health: Incorporating stages of nursings political development. Nursing Outlook 67. 4. Johnson (2021). Continued leadership development for nursing professional development practitioners: Political competence. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development. 37 5. Loversidge (2016 December). A call for extending the utility of evidence-based practice: Adapting EBP for health policy impact. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 390 2 Political Advocacy Student’s name Instructor Course Date Hello Dr. Liter and class I held a consultative meeting with a group of decision-makers in the practicum site, intending to identify the problem their healthcare facility has been experiencing in the past few years. I realized that they want a leadership roadmap that is strong and supportive. The new leadership team is stronger and more aligned with the needs of the nurses. Therefore, proposing my DNP project to them would be of great benefit. Through a series of discussions about healthcare improvement and provision of quality and safe care, the decision-makers were concerned about old age patients who, for a long time now are being exposed to secondary acquired infections, increased mortalities, morbidities, increased cost of healthcare and increased period of stay within the hospital because of the increased rate of falling (Cunha, Baixinho & Henriques, 2019). Since this population has other underlying health problems, sustaining a fall is close to zero because a fall subject an elderly individual to poor quality of life, reduced functionality and surgical interventions. This team of decision-makers found that the increased rate of elderly falls in their practicum site is due to the knowledge gap and strategies supposed to reduce fall incidences and the goodwill from healthcare providers to implement evidence-based interventions. My PICO question is directed to a population of nursing home residents who state, “does a fall prevention protocol of hourly rounds compared with call lights at the bedside and bed in lowest position decrease the incidences of falls?” The generation of my PICO question can help yield appropriate information for research on fall prevention at the practicum site. My PICOT question can slightly change in future because of the advancement of technology. That is because bed alarms (technological devices) based on research alert providers when an older adult is at risk of falling while leaving the bed or chair and there is no assistance (Linehan & Linehan, 2018). According to Luke et al. (2018), translation science helps organizations implement an evidence-based practice change to measure variables, develop interventions and examine methods that will improve the overall operational decision-making process and clinical practice. Translation science helps to improve healthcare service delivery, the safety of patients and healthcare, and increased efficiency and effectiveness (Luke et al., 2018). My translation into practice recommendations is implementing fall prevention programs such as hourly rounding to prevent falls. However, hourly rounding by nurses should not be an isolated intervention; but instead, it should be incorporated with other fall prevention approaches and risk assessment tools (Luke et al., 2018). My practicum site is my workplace. My current priority is to see that the proposed DNP project concerned with preventing fall-related incidences among the elderly population is implemented in the practicum site to assess the way nurse leaders can minimize patient falls through integrated fall prevention programs followed by robust sustenance initiatives (Linehan & Linehan, 2018). Nurse leaders should implement several fall prevention strategies, which should be sustained with a strong safety culture. Nurse leaders must use evidence-based fall prevention strategies because patients falls are still a major health problem. Due to the increased cost and length of stay that causes more pain to elderly patients experiencing fall incidences, the decision-makers will not hesitate in supporting my DNP project because they have promised to design a nurse education and training program that looks forward to educating nurses about the importance of conducting hourly rounds within the facility to assure patient’s care safety. as a result, prioritized care will be made based on those patients identified through risk assessment by nurses as high risks of falling.   References Cunha, L. F. C. D., Baixinho, C. L., & Henriques, M. A. (2019). Preventing falls in hospitalized elderly: design and validation of a team intervention. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 53. Luke, D. A., Sarli, C. C., Suiter, A. M., Carothers, B. J., Combs, T. B., Allen, J. L., ... & Evanoff, B. A. (2018). The translational science benefits model: a new framework for assessing the health and societal benefits of clinical and translational sciences. Clinical and translational science, 11(1), 77-84. Linehan, J., & Linehan, J. (2018). Fall prevention in long term care using purposeful hourly rounding. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 19(3), B17. 4 Healthcare Initiative Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Course Tutor Due Date Hello Dr. Liter and class 1. Explore this initiative in detail and share your thoughts on the plan. I came across a Tweet on my Twitter feed by Healthy Maryland (@HealthyMaryland) that was passing information about an initiative they have developed to enable people to acquire health insurance. They also have a framework for health plans to help the members in financial help coverage and make healthcare effective and more affordable for Maryland. Health insurance is a framework developed to pay one’s healthcare costs and medical bills, which help get the care you need. Medicare is a health insurance for people aged 65b years and above and some with disabilities (Berchick et al., 2019). Medicaid is health insurance developed for people who generate relatively low incomes. Health insurances are essential in supporting someone when they fall sick and also helps them in avoiding sickness. This initiative is very inclusive and crucial in ensuring the people have affordable and quality healthcare services in various hospitals depending on their insurance coverage. 2. Discuss your thoughts about the Tweet and whether you can support the initiative or not. Be sure to use evidence in support of your position. This tweet communicates in detail, explaining how they should sign up and when the insurance coverage will start covering their medical needs. This tweet aims to attract new insurance users within Maryland to prevent incurring huge costs when seeking medication and to provide them with the best quality care after they purchase the insurance coverage. I can support this initiative because it aims to ensure medical care services are disseminated effectively to the people of Maryland and reduce costs when seeking medication. Health is an expensive life aspect, and thus, everyone should take this opportunity and sign up for insurance coverage. This initiative can be popularized by advertising it via social media platforms and paying for ads to lure people into reading the prerequisites and influencing them to use the insurance coverage (Woolhandler & Himmelstein, 2017). Suppose one fails to acquire insurance coverage. They will find a hard time seeking urgent medication, and the costs of being subjected to their illness will be very high. This would have been avoided if they had acquired an insurance plan to cater for them when they fell sick. The insurance caters to almost all health costs depending on the insurance plan. 3. Within the political climate of government today, does this initiative have any hope of moving forward? Share your position based on the evidence Within the existing political climate of the government, it has hope in moving forward and reaching many citizens from all walks of life. The government focuses on ensuring that health is taken care of, and hence, measures to ensure the utilization of healthcare settings will be of great importance. The government will play a huge role in healthcare financing by lobbying for the necessary resources and contributive mechanisms that help in pooling resources for health development. In the U.S, the Department of Health and Human Services, the principal agency for the federal government, is involved in healthcare service delivery (Carrin et al., 2017). The Department funds public insurance programs which are Medicaid and Medicare. The government also deals with setting legislations that govern the insurance programs. Therefore, this initiative will go on because the government has an integral role in funding health insurance and regulating medical devices. 4. Compose a Tweet (no more than 140 characters) that adequately addresses your response to the original post and share this Tweet in the discussion Tweet: health insurance plays a considerable role in reducing costs incurred during healthcare acquisition and improving service delivery. References Berchick, E. R., Hood, E., & Barnett, J. C. (2019). Health insurance coverage in the United States: 2018 (p. 2). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce. Woolhandler, S., & Himmelstein, D. U. (2017). The relationship of health insurance and mortality: is lack of insurance deadly?. Annals of Internal Medicine, 167(6), 424-431. Carrin, G., Desmet, M., & Basaza, R. (2017). Social health insurance development in low-income developing countries: new roles for government and nonprofit health insurance organizations in Africa and Asia. In Building social security: The challenge of privatization (pp. 125-156). Routledge. Running head: PROFESSIONAL ADVOCACY THROUGH NURSING ORGANIZATIONS 1 PROFESSIONAL ADVOCACY THROUGH NURSING ORGANIZATIONS 4 Professional Advocacy through Nursing Organizations Student’s Name Department, Institutional Affiliation Course Title Tutor’s Name Date Hello Dr. Liter and Class The examination of the nursing organization and its political function The selected nursing organization is the American Nurses Association (ANA) that is aimed at helping in the transformation of the nations health by empowering the nurses. Nurses use their organization to play the advocacy role hence are directly involved in the political functions. The ANA is using the political action committee to ensure that the voices and the opinions of the nurses are heard by the Congressmen (Keeler et al., 2019). Through the ANA, nurses have the American Nurses Association Political Action Committee (ANA-PAC) that is used to offer support to any federal candidate who shares their concerns and the challenges they encounter. The three legislative initiates supported by the ANA The legal initiatives supported by the ANA are aimed at ensuring that there is protection and the improvement of the scope of nursing practice. ANA is aiming at removing the barriers and making sure that nurses are involved in the full practice. The ANA, therefore, monitors and advocates for the legislative and changes within the law that affects the nurses scope of practice. Another legal initiative by the ANA is the removal of the barriers towards access to healthcare services. The other legal initiative of the ANA is related to the qualifications and the licensure requirements for the nurses to participate in the delivery of healthcare services to the patient (Keeler et al., 2019). The ANA, therefore, is helping with the establishment of the review plan for the recognition of the nursing specialty. Defining the personal position on each initiative and whether there is an agreement with the position and the advocacy platform of the ANA I am fully supporting the legal initiatives taken by the ANA that are aimed at ensuring that patients are receiving quality healthcare services and benefiting nurses. These initiatives help in making sure that before nurses are involved in the practice, they have to meet the requirements set by the ANA. This is important in the promotion of safe healthcare delivery and the prevention of potential errors. The ANA review the program that is used in determining nurses specialization and confirming whether the standards of practice have been met (Williams et al., 2016). Therefore, through these initiatives, the ANA is helping in making sure that there is a successful process of monitoring and advocating for the legislative and regulatory changes that meet the scope of nurse practice. Composition of a tweet reflecting on the personal position concerning the legislative initiative The ANA is a great organization that is concerned with not only the well-being of the nurses but also that of the patients since it aims at making sure that the healthcare practices are based on the set standards. Every nurse should therefore take an opportunity to be part of this team since it has numerous benefits for being a member of this team. It gives nurses an opportunity of taking part in legal initiatives for example the initiatives that are aimed at promoting the safety of the healthcare providers within their working environment. The ANA is also helping in ensuring that the efforts aimed at expanding the role of the nurses through the scope of practice are attained effectively through advocacy via the legal process using the members of the Congress (Keeler et al., 2019). This is important in making sure that the full practice of the nurses is realized in other states that do not allow such laws. My tweet: #ANA #GreatOrganization #SupportANA #ANA is aiming at removing the barriers and making sure that nurses are involved in the full practice. References Keeler, H., Baier, R. R., Kosar, C., Culross, B., & Cramer, M. E. (2019). Examining the impact of board-certified registered nurses in skilled nursing facilities using national and state quality and clinical indicators. Journal of gerontological nursing, 45(11), 39-45. Williams, T. E., Baker, K., Evans, L., Lucatorto, M. A., Moss, E., O’Sullivan, A., ... & Zittel, B. (2016). Registered nurses as professionals, advocates, innovators, and collaborative leaders: Executive summary. Online journal of issues in nursing, 21(5). 3 Community Health & the Global Burden of Disease Student’s name Instructor Course Date Hello Dr. Liter and Class Community Health & the Global Burden of Disease On a daily basis, the residents of Miami-Dade County encounter a variety of health issues. Many of these problems go unsolved because the rate of growth they create outweighs the resources available to deal with them. Heart disease, cancer, and COVID-19, for example, are the top three health concerns affecting Miami residents. National initiatives The National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) is a community resource offered to Miami Dade County that provides mental health education and assistance, including peer and family support groups (Brooks, 2019). In the midst of this public health crisis, a similar organization, United Homecare, helps clients with DAILY living tasks by providing healthcare and home visits, but they are also focusing on enhancing mental wellness and reducing mental illness risks for clients. Mental health prevention and high-quality mental health treatment are at the core of Healthy People 2020s mission. An additional national health program is the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. The objective of preventative care is to assist individuals in avoiding getting sick while encouraging them to adopt healthy habits (Healthy People 2020, n.d.). The only approach to significantly enhance the communitys health, in the long run, is to teach individuals how to avoid certain lifestyle choices to reduce their risks and how to use specialized tools, such as early screening. Advocacy Strategies The following are some of the methods I would use to engage a local policymaker in a national campaign to push for change: Social policies are evaluated for their potential impact on the health of new, proposed, and existing policymakers using Health Impact Assessments (HIA). By assessing the risks and benefits of proposed policies and programs and providing recommendations for how to maximize positive impacts while minimizing adverse consequences, the HIA enhances the quality of policy decisions. According to Pennel et al. (2017), participation of public stakeholder groups is a key element of HIA, as it allows for health and well-being social models that are evidently centered on social justice, equity, and openness. In this case, the four underlying values are Ethical, evidence-based decision-making, sustainable development, equity (considering the effects on the entire population), and democracy (promoting stakeholder engagement) (Brooks, 2019). Use the health in all policies strategy to incorporate health improvement and screening of all individuals as objectives that are shared across all areas of government. HiAP addresses public policies across sectors in an attempt in order to improve health equity and population health. This way, it uses health promotion synergies and systematically assessing implications of decisions to reduce health disparities associated with social determinants (Pennel et al., 2017). Because social determinants of health (SDH) are the most important elements impacting population health and health equality, health policy must move its attention away from illness-focused health care and toward policies that affect peoples everyday social environments (Brooks, 2019). Our largest health challenges—for example, skyrocketing healthcare costs, climate change, health disparities and inequalities, and non-communicable diseases are incredibly complex and often linked by a wide range of social factors (Pennel et al., 2017). Tweet “The Global Burden of Disease affects a communitys wellbeing by reducing life expectancy, increased morbidity, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years.” Dr. Riley with Congressman Aiken. When preparing my initial meeting with a congressman visit, I need to plan ahead of time because representatives have conflicting priorities, and getting on their calendars and influencing the policy decision-making process takes planning and a little finesse on the advocates. Therefore, Ill look into the legislators position and voting record on this topic. To learn more about legislators goals, look at their website, social media, and other public statements. References Brooks, A. (2019, March 4). What is community health, and why is it important? Rasmussen University. Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/blog/what-is-community-health/. Healthy People 2020. (n.d.). Topics & Objectives. 2020 Topics and Objectives – Objectives A–Z | Retrieved October 11, 2021, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives. Pennel, C. L., McLeroy, K. R., Burdine, J. N., Matarrita-Cascante, D., & Wang, J. (2016). Community health needs assessment: potential for population health improvement. Population Health Management, 19(3), 178-186.   Running head: HEALTHCARE POLICY HEALTHCARE POLICY 3 Title Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Date Hello Dr. Liter and Class The healthcare issue within my community Every human being needs to access quality healthcare so as to live a long and peaceful life. Nonetheless, 1 in 10 residents in my community does not have access to healthcare. The major cause of ill health and limited access to healthcare is poverty. In my community, people without a steady source of income have limited access to healthcare. There is a strong correlation between poverty and poor health. Individuals with a good source of income can afford better healthcare. Approximately, 70 percent of residents in my community are uninsured due to poverty (Novak & Anders, 2019). Lack of insurance means that the individuals forego preventive care. The residents wait for long until the illness is severe before accessing healthcare. Children from poor households do not receive any health care services thus exposing them to long-term illness (Semega, Kollar, Creamer, & Mohanty, 2019). Poverty exposes the residents to unfavorable living conditions such as sleeping on the streets, poor diet, and exposure to diseases. As such, poverty affects people’s health across the entire life course. The type of healthcare policy to advocate for in an effort to change this issue In most cases, discussions about health policies begin with discovering ways to reduce unhealthy behavior such as smoking, binge drinking, and increasing physical exercise. Further, the discussions center around how to increase peoples access to healthcare by reducing the number of uninsured individuals. However, access to healthcare is determined by other factors such as employment, food security, and housing. These material factors determine peoples exposure to biohazards that increase diseases prevalence. Therefore, the healthcare policy should consider the material factors that increase exposure to poor health. Consequently, I will advocate for a social policy as the incorporation of health policy. Essentially, the policy will strengthen the residents’ health through dietary interventions, stress management, and the reduction of unhealthy behavior. In this case, the healthcare policy will involve volunteers from the community to participate in fundraising. The funds will be used in financing training people from poor households on good nutrition. The programs will offer meals for homeless people. Type of campaign to launch in order to gather a network of support To convince community members to participate in my healthcare policies, I will design a volunteer engagement program. Through the program, the residents will be informed by the health policy in churches, schools, and other public gatherings. This initiatives goal is to increase residents awareness about the program and develop a wide network of support. Additionally, the volunteer engagement policy will interact with residents through social media platforms. I will post my initiatives on the communitys Facebook and Twitter pages (Surani, et al., 2017). I will also create a WhatsApp group to inform people about the healthcare policy. gathering a network of support means keeping people informed about the healthcare policy and convincing them to participate in the campaign. Tweet Poverty and healthcare are related. poor people cannot access good healthcare services. I advocate for social policy as health policy. References Novak, L., & Anders, S. (2019). Improving the effectiveness of health information technology: the case for situational analytics. Applied clinical informatics, 10(04), 771-776. Semega, J., Kollar, M., Creamer, J., & Mohanty, A. (2019, June 12). Income and Poverty in the United States. Retrieved from United States Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.pdf Surani, Z., Hirani, R., Elias, A., Quisenberry, L., Varon, J., Surani, S., & Surani, S. (2017). Social media usage among health care providers. BMC research notes, 1-5. 3 Social Determinants of Health: Economic Stability Author’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Name and Number Instructor Due Date Social Determinants of Health: Economic Stability Picture Depicting a Social Determinant Issue An example of a social determinant issue in my community, which impacts the quality of life and healthcare is economic stability. The picture in figure 1 below depicts this issue. One can see a homeless person lying on the sidewalk and covered in a blanket. A lady is passing by with trendy clothes and a smartphone as she walks past a boutique. She appears relatively well-off financially. It is clear that out of these two individuals, the rich woman has a better ability to afford healthcare services compared to the poor homeless person. More so, she can afford a lifestyle that may offer a positive influence on her health compared to the homeless individual. Hence, the economic stability of the lady makes her predisposed to better health outcomes while the poverty of the homeless person makes him/her predisposed to negative health outcomes. Figure 1: Social Determinant of Health – Economic Stability Perspective Regarding the Social Determinant Issue According to Semega et al. (2019), “in the United States, 1 in 10 people live in poverty, and many people cannot afford things like healthy foods, health care, and housing” (p. 1). This is because economic stability is essential to affording ideal lifestyle choices and paying for the necessary high-quality medical services, which keep people healthy. A person who has a well-paying and steady source of income can afford things like housing stability and food security. These are crucial factors that facilitate optimum living conditions. Also, he/she can have savings to cater to healthcare emergencies or the management of chronic conditions. In my community, individuals with steady sources of income have a lower likelihood of living in poverty and a high chance of being healthy. However, many individuals find it challenging to seek and keep a job. For instance, those with disabilities or chronic conditions tend to be limited in what they can do and miss out on many job opportunities. Furthermore, even those who get jobs, most of them are low-paying resulting in individuals who have limited funds to afford items required to stay healthy (Horwitz et al., 2020). The current Covid-19 pandemic has shown how people with lower incomes are more predisposed to getting the disease and dying from it due to reasons such as crowded accommodation, obesity, and limited access to healthcare (Singu et al., 2020). In this context, the role I might play in changing this social determinant in my community is to lobby the lawmakers to come up with policies that aid low-income people in paying for healthcare, housing, education, and food since these are factors, which can greatly lower poverty and enhance health and overall wellbeing. 140-Character Tweet that Describes the Social Determinant of Health Lawmakers should create policies to bridge the rich-poor divide and subsidize healthcare costs of people from low socioeconomic backgrounds. References Horwitz, L. I., Chang, C., Arcilla, H. N., & Knickman, J. R. (2020). Quantifying health systems’ investment in social determinants of health, by sector, 2017–19: Study analyzes the extent to which US health systems are directly investing in community programs to address social determinants of health. Health Affairs, 39(2), 192-198. Semega, J., Kollar, M., Creamer, J., Mohanty, A. (2019). Income and Poverty in the United States. United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.pdf Singu, S., Acharya, A., Challagundla, K., & Byrareddy, S. N. (2020). Impact of social determinants of health on the emerging COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 406.