University of Southern California:: Health + Social
There is now widespread agreement that social determinants – factors like race, class and zip code – have greater influence on our health than does our biology. But the health care system has been slow to evolve, leaving providers ill-equipped to help patients and others in need.
GreenHouse has jumped into the void, developing the publication Health Plus Social to explore social determinants and the implications for the training of health care professionals.
The publication was part of our efforts as Innovators in Residence to give shape to the new graduate nursing program at the University of Southern California, the first such program housed in a school of social work.
“The basic reason for the neglect of social determinants in health care is that the system is primarily set up to treat acute, biomedical problems,” wrote the editor of our report. “Substantial work remains if we hope to translate our understanding of social determinants into practical, specific protocols for care on the individual or community level.”
Former Dean Marilyn Flynn wrote in the foreword: “Conditions of poverty, injustice, and broken human relationships provide the etiology for gunshot wounds, delayed development, late-stage diagnosis, and lack of access to care… Our experts here note that nursing may have more potential than other health professions in bringing power and authority to the idea of social determinants and incorporating this content into training and professional perspectives.”
As Innovators in Residence, we were part of the new graduate nursing program from its inception through the admission of the first cohort of students in August 2016.
Our work continued in exploring how these social factors can inform a new research agenda for nursing science and new forms of doctoral education.
“Conditions of poverty, injustice, and broken human relationships provide the etiology for gunshot wounds, delayed development, late-stage diagnosis, and lack of access to care… Our experts here note that nursing may have more potential than other health professions in bringing power and authority to the idea of social determinants and incorporating this content into training and professional perspectives.”
—Fmr. Dean, USC Suzanne Dworek-Peck School of Social Work
