What is Global Health? Essay

Global health is understood to be study, research and practice with a focal point of improving health and achieving health equality for people worldwide (Beaglehole & Bonita, 2010). Nurses embody the leading number of healthcare providers and have extensive contact with the general population therefore having a personal accountability to protect and improve health. Activities on a global scale can aid in increasing proficiency, setting standards of care, and assembling networks within other regions of the world. Because travel is so easy and communication comes in many forms, it makes the world a smaller place in which citizens in every corner of the world can be reached. Not only do nurses have to act locally to improve conditions on the home front, they need to think internationally to inspire global change. Offering one's knowledge and sharing solutions that support global health in the local and international nursing communities can only have positive effects on universal health.
Global health rose to the forefront during the recent Ebola outbreak in the United States. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health crisis on a global scale. Healthcare providers in the United States knew little about controlling this disease, and because of that, legislative events were taken to guard public safety whether or not it meant "to infringe on human rights" (Hodge, Barraza, Measer, & Agrawal, 2015, p. 595). Here in the U.S., hospitals were preparing the safest personal protection equipment processes and other protocols in the event Ebola would make it to their emergency rooms. Even though Ebola indeed made its way here, the threat to this country was reduced through an emergent effort in global health care. U.S. healthcare workers now know how to treat, isolate, and combat Ebola and much needed attention is now focused on eradicating this disease in the world completely.
Education is an important component in global health. Many global health organizations, such as the Red Cross, offer education to the general public. Healthcare workers need to be vigilant in helping those outside of convenient medical care areas, those whose socioeconomic status is low, and other vulnerable populations in an effort to reach all populations. The WHO endorsed a plan of inter-professional collaborative practice (IPC) which ''occurs when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds provide comprehensive services by working with patients, their families, caregivers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care across settings''(Dean et al., 2014, p. 262) to aid in this particular purpose.
Nurses need to be fully engaged in healthcare with a global perspective in place. As the largest entity of healthcare providers, they need to be aware of global health issues through memberships in nursing organizations such as the American Nurses Association to keep abreast of medically pertinent news, and engage through places of employment and working locally. Global health is a quest for all human beings to have equal access to the best medical education and practices as well as the highest level of personal health they can achieve.