RN Patient Advocacy in a Globalized World: Resuscitating Public Health
Recent epidemic outbreaks of Ebola, Chikungunya, and Enterovirus D68 draw attention to how the decay of public health systems puts patients and nurses at risk in the United States and globally. This course examines the role of social and economic inequities in epidemics and infectious disease on a global scale and as part of our broader context typified by austerity measures and the privatization of healthcare. The spread of epidemics is not a random or merely biological occurrence. Instead, epidemics are historically and socially rooted events that spread most quickly in areas with a weakened or nonexistent public health system. The current global health governance structure, led by the World Bank, World Trade Organization, World Health Organization, and increasingly philanthropic donors and public-private partnerships, has augmented health inequalities. Against this backdrop, the course explores prioritization of profitable disease treatment and research and the predominance of pharmaceutical approaches to eliminating spread at the expense of public healthcare infrastructures that are better suited for containing and preventing disease. The class will culminate in a discussion of the importance of nurse leadership to rebuild a public health system based on social, economic, and ecological equity that is essential in fighting emerging infectious diseases.
To be presented on various dates at respective venues
Modesto, CA April 9, 2015Hayward, CA April 13, 2015Vallejo, CA April 16, 2015 La Jolla, CA CLASS FULL San Jose, CA San Francisco, CA Santa Rosa, CA Arcadia/Monrovia, CA |
Palm Springs, CA CLASS RE-OPENED May 19, 2015Anaheim, CA May 21, 2015Santa Monica, CA May 29, 2015 Santa Cruz, CA Oakland, CA Roseville, CA Sacramento, CA |