THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Why Care in the Community Must Be Our Guide
Monica Harmon
What color are your glasses? A simple enough question on the surface. One response might be the actual color of the eye wearer or even wonderment if the person does not wear glasses. However, this is not a literal question but a symbolic one. Figurative glasses allow one to self-reflect and examine their own life’s experiences. These individual experiences color the lenses of one’s glasses and filter how they receive and perceive the world. The information obtained is the catalyst for self-introspection. It acts as a check and balance on health care providers ‘assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation…the interventions they make to improve the public’s health.
What if every health care practitioner, researcher, and policy decision-maker answered the question about the color of their glasses before performing their work? This question informs my job as a public health nurse, educator, and researcher and influences my teaching and scholarship. Answering the question can lead to optimal health outcomes for individuals, families, populations, and communities. It allows me to advocate for the people I serve.
This question is also how I challenge future health care professionals to conduct a thorough community assessment. Public health practitioners understand that community assessment is more than systematic data collection and analysis approach. This data collection is not a one-and-done process but is utilized to create and reflect upon what health care providers see, hear, and feel while working with communities and developing appropriate interventions. I guide my students through this process to help them become conscientious collaborators for health and well-being with their patients, no matter the setting.
Leading students in this inquiry allows them to start on their self-exploration journey of experiences that “color” their views of those they serve. They can pay homage to their own story and how they came to health care, recognizing that each patient also has their own lens, narrative, and experience that “colors” their health beliefs. When health care professionals view communities in this way, they deliver care with a strengths-based approach, which is crucial for community-based public health.
As a Black public health nurse, I am invested in health equity for minoritized and marginalized populations. I combine my personal story with the public health nursing process to deliver quality health care. The community is at the center of care as I see it. If we are not appreciative of the experiences that “color” our perspectives, we are destined to repeat the same atrocities and perpetuate the same health inequities that disproportionately impact communities of color.
Black nurses have always been a go-between for their families, friends, communities when accessing health care. Often, we come from communities where atrocities have occurred. Health care institutions do not always have the best interests of vulnerable populations. For this reason, Black nurses need to honor their personal stories, which have likely led them to the profession. The journey is not one to be ashamed of or be silent about. But instead, our stories are so powerful that they inspire transformative change for the populations and communities we serve.
Monica Harmon is President of South Eastern Pennsylvania Black Nurses Association, and a serving member of The Black Frontline Advisory Council. The Black Frontline is the largest oral history project of global Black nurses and doctors, gathering 300 stories from three countries on three continents. It frames the pandemic through their lived experience as part of making structural change to the healthcare sector. It is founded by The Armah Institute of Emotional Justice and co-directed with COVID Black. The Black Frontline will launch February 2022.
