Bridges to Health and Healthcare coauthor Terie Dreussi-Smith has published an article in the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. The article was written with Barbara Wise and tells what it’s like when people from generational poverty visit healthcare providers.
The article also uses the Bridges lens to help providers have better interactions and outcomes by understanding the challenges faced by people in poverty. Here is the article abstract:
Background and purpose: There is a much recent emphasis on the social determinants of health, and poverty is the most influential of these. It is not enough merely to understand the influence of poverty on health—the primary care provider must understand how to effectively treat patients who live in poverty.
Methods: This article applies the Bridges to Health and Healthcare model for understanding poverty to primary care practice from an individual provider’s perspective. The article walks the reader through the implications of generational poverty for the primary care clinician in a typical office visit from history taking to following up.
Conclusions: Most primary care practitioners approach patients from a middle-class perspective. Awareness of the challenges and different perspectives of those in generational poverty can enhance care and outcomes.
Implications for practice: The individual provider can use the understanding of driving forces, resources, language and cognition, environment, and relationships provided by the Bridges to Health and Healthcare model to benefit patients in generational poverty.
The article is currently unavailable for free download, but it can be purchased via the publisher’s website. Or check back in April 2019, when we’ll have it posted on our site for free download.
