Are Nursing Students Learning About Social Determinants of Health?

Nurses must be knowledgeable about social determinants of health (SDH) to provide holistic care with improved patient outcomes. When evaluating the Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing curriculum, it is unclear if SDH are adequately identified, assessed, and discussed, or if students grasp their importance. To move to a population health approach, faculty need to be more inclusive of community and public health. For purposes of this study, the factors comprising SDH were identified as childhood experiences, housing, education, social support, family income, employment, communities, and access to health services. These eight factors were used to categorize participants' qualitative responses to baseline and completion surveys.