Advancing health equity: Organizational characteristics emphasized by health department nurse lead executives.

Publisher: Blackwell Scientific Publications Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 8501498 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1525-1446 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 07371209 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Public Health Nurs Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: [Boston, MA] : Blackwell Scientific Publications, [c1984-

Health Equity* ; Nurse Administrators*; Humans ; Local Government ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Public Health Administration/methods ; Public Health/methods

Objective: To compare nurse and non-nurse lead executives' relationship with organizational characteristics supporting performance and health equity in local health departments (LHD).
Design: This was a cross-sectional quantitative study.
Sample: The final national sample consisted of 1447 LHDs using the 2019 Profile of Local Health Departments survey.
Measurements: We used multivariable logistic and negative binomial regression analyses to explore the relationship between nurse versus non-nurse LHD lead executives and involvement in ten organizational characteristics including community health assessment (CHA) and community health improvement plan (CHIP) completion and policy activities related to the social determinants of health (SDOH).
Results: Multivariable logistic regression models showed that, for nurse lead executives, the odds of having completed a CHA is 1.49 times, and the odds of having completed a CHIP is 1.56 times, that of non-nurse lead executives. Negative binomial regression models predicted nurse lead executives, compared to non-nurses, to perform 1.18 times more SDOH-related policy activities.
Conclusion: Results suggest that nurse lead executives are more likely than non-nurses to emphasize assessment in their work and engage in upstream-focused policy activities. As such, they are important partners in work to facilitate health equity.
(© 2022 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

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Keywords: health departments; health disparities; health policy; nursing administration; public health nursing practice; public health systems

Date Created: 20220617 Date Completed: 20221114 Latest Revision: 20230212

20240513

10.1111/phn.13109

35714667