Global Health Competency Among Advanced Practice Nurses

There is no documentation of global health competency among advanced practice nurses, specifically for Nurse Practitioners in current health related literature. Global health competency is an issue of increasing importance as we face an era of immense globalization, migration, immigration, and widening income gaps. It is widely accepted that lower income status, ethnic and racial disparities place persons at risk for increased morbidity and mortality globally and locally. Additionally, advanced practice nurses, Nurse Practitioners, are increasingly seen as primary care providers for the future aiding rapidly aging and influxes of ethno-diverse cultures. This culminates with already existing high levels of poverty, reliance on government†¦show more content†¦Most physician-driven efforts have been bio-medically focused. One competency assessment by Wilson, et al. was adapted from Medicine for undergraduate nursing by removing treatment and medical diagnoses (2012). In a st udy of 700 undergraduate nursing programs, only 29% offered global health as a separate course outside of standard community health and there are no reports in the literature establishing or documenting global health competence among graduate prepared advanced practice nurses. In another sample of 36 Canadian Association of University Schools of Nursing, only 0.81% of undergraduate students had international experiences and only 2 of 36 institutions had transcultural nursing requirements which limits abilities or competence in assisting diverse populations. We do know utilization of health belief models and transcultural theory have been very effective in implementing health interventions and this has been noted in several studies including the use of social capital in management of disease (Malin, 2014). Cultural mistrust of providers remains amongst low-income persons of minority status who have experienced previous inequity or discrimination has been repeatedly documented and wi ll continue to be a barrier (Benkert,