Learn: Community Health & Nursing Leadership

Social determinants of health

Environmental and community conditions like unsafe housing, unreliable transportation, and polluted water.

Secondary prevention

Detecting disease in its earliest stages during a detectable latent period while the person is asymptomatic.

Primary prevention

Aims to stop disease development or reduce exposure before illness or injury occurs (e.g., immunization, safer roads).

Tertiary prevention

Applies when established disease or disability is present, aiming to maintain or improve function (e.g., rehabilitation).

Access to health services

Illustrated when patients delay treatment due to lack of health insurance or economic barriers.

Health literacy

Addressed when a nurse uses plain language and checks whether a patient understands prescription directions.

Vulnerable population

A person facing economic, housing, and transportation barriers to care.

Four care-coordination focuses

Self-management, transitional care, health literacy, and disease management.

WHO definition of health

Health includes complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease.

Patient flow

Moving patients to the most appropriate unit when their care needs change.

Challenges to patient flow

Lack of available services and staff shortages.

Hospital classification factors

Ownership, number of beds, licensure, teaching status, multihospital system, and length of stay.

Environmental services

The hospital department responsible for housekeeping.

Micro financial perspective

Concerns an individual hospital's financial needs, budgets, and long-term strategic planning.

Macro financial perspective

Concerns national healthcare spending and increasing Medicare and Medicaid expenditures.

Reimbursement definition

The payment of patients' bills for services provided.

Distinction for-profit vs. nonprofit hospitals

What is done with the profit.

Coinsurance

A third-party payer system payment term alongside deductibles and copayments.

Nursing leadership definition

The ability to inspire, influence, and motivate healthcare workers toward shared goals.

Healthcare complexity factors

Population shifts, cultural diversity, disease patterns, technology advances, and economic changes.

Structural empowerment

One of the five Magnet Model components.

Transformational leadership (Magnet)

Directing people toward where they need to be to meet future demands.

Non-central element to care delivery

Marketing and retail sales are not central elements to care delivery systems.

Team nursing

An RN, LPN, and UAP work together during a shift with the RN acting as team leader.

Total patient care

An RN personally provides direct care to assigned patients (common in critical care, PACU, ER).

Case management

An RN coordinates clinical pathways, expected outcomes, and assignments primarily through indirect care.

Delegation

Transferring responsibility and authority for a task to another person while remaining accountable for the outcome.

Advocate role

Ensuring a patient understands choices, respecting preferences, and protecting rights.

Holistic care

Planning interventions for physical, psychosocial, spiritual, and environmental needs.

Servant leadership style

Listens, builds relationships, values team input, and commits to developing individual team members.

Transformational leadership style

Mentors nurses, supports learning, creates positive environments, and inspires innovation.

Authoritarian/autocratic leadership

Makes all decisions without staff input and uses blame and punishment.

Laissez-faire leadership

A hands-off approach providing almost no direction or supervision.

Defined roles and interdependence

Artemis teamwork principle where each member has a distinct responsibility supporting others.

Shared leadership

The person with the most relevant expertise takes the lead during rapidly changing situations.

Adaptability and contingency planning

Demonstrated by training through simulations and preparing backup plans for unexpected failures.

Psychological safety / just culture

Team responds to near-misses by learning and reporting rather than humiliating.

Situational awareness

Continuously monitoring subtle patient changes, the environment, and the needs of colleagues.

Interprofessional team

Includes members from more than one healthcare discipline (e.g., nurses, physicians, pharmacists).

Intraprofessional teamwork

Teamwork occurring within a single profession or discipline, such as nursing.

Collaboration continuum

Information exchange → consultation/coordination → referral/co-management.

SBAR - Situation

A concise statement of what is happening with the patient right now.

SBAR - Background

Relevant clinical context and history related to the current situation.

SBAR - Assessment

What the nurse finds and thinks the problem may be.

SBAR - Recommendation

The action requested or what the nurse thinks should happen next.

Check-back / closed-loop communication

Provider gives an order, nurse repeats it, and provider confirms it is correct.

Handoff approach

Sharing critical information face-to-face in a private, low-distraction setting using a standardized method.

Groupthink

Occurs when agreement-seeking overrides realistic evaluation of alternatives and limits options.

Psychological safety and collaboration

Inviting every discipline to voice concerns and share decision-making to support safety.

Main nursing lesson from Artemis

Role clarity, verified communication, adaptability, situational awareness, and shared leadership support safety.