NR 717 Week 7 Discussion; Advocacy to Impact Population Health Through Written Testimony

Week 7 NR717 Hello, state officials of the Mississippi State Department of Health (Identify) I am Angelica Waller, MSN, BSN, RN, a current doctoral candidate and a seven-year registered nurse serving the public at a small hospital, Moore’s Park Memorial. I am a nurse manager on a step-down intermediate care telemetry unit. As a doctoral candidate, I am working on my doctorate in nursing practice in Healthcare leadership at Chamberlain University. Over seven years working as a floor nurse, I have had the opportunity to travel and work at various hospitals and volunteer at a local clinic for uninsured patients who live within a marginalized community before taking a nurse manager position. Occasionally, I still do volunteer work and set up clinical sites with other skilled healthcare workers to serve the needs of the public. My focus is ensuring access to care, protecting funding for core public health programs and services, and eliminating health disparities for those within the impoverished community with a high prevalence of hypertension leading to cardiac disease. (Situation) From a nurse serving a marginalized community to another one, the citizens within the population of Jackson, Mississippi, preferably African Americans, face a higher prevalence of hypertension, leading to more chronic issues such as cardiac disease. Why is this matter important? Because lower income and an inferior education are potentially causal pathways for disparities in hypertension-induced cardiac defects. In support of H. Res. 238 (IH) Congressional Bills 114th Congress Introduced in House. April 30, 2015, the mission was to promote minority health awareness and support the goals and ideas of National Health Month in April 2015, which involves bringing attention to the various health disparities that minority populations within the United States face. Minority populations are American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and all African Americans, whom this written testimony focus is targeted at. The challenges the population faces within a low socioeconomic community require the development of sustainable interventions to meet local and global healthcare needs. More system-focused policies must be implemented to address healthcare disparities and community participation. Failure to implement effective policies to alleviate health care disparities, such as providing medical insurance, educating patients on the disease process, and proper self-care management within the African American people of Jackson, Mississippi, can lead to unintentional injuries, continuous hindrance to healthcare access, heart disease, and death. Policies addressing poor neighborhood economics and social conditions are considered viable strategies to reduce the burden of cardiac disease among African Americans and ultimately lessen racial inequities in this group. (Background) Mississippi State Department of Health, I understand that you all serve the National Public Health Accreditation Board and are concerned about the African American population who are at an increase of developing chronic heart disease from an initial diagnosis of hypertension. However, Mississippi is considered the second-highest state in the United States, which has a high rate of heart disease (McCoy, 2024). As a registered nurse and manager serving the community at a hospital