The Role of Nurse Leaders in Addressing Social Determinants of Health: Highlights from Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Social determinants of health (SDOH) including socioeconomic status, education and living conditions, have a large impact on health outcomes and often serve as HPs for marginalized populations. Leadership strategies which focus on addressing these determinants while also advocating for policy and the making of system changes are explicitly targeted at achieving and sustaining health equity by nurse leaders.
Aim: This systematic review examines the nurse leader approaches to address SDOH and their effect on health equity and patient outcomes.
Method: A comprehensive search was conducted across databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO) following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews) guidelines. The studies published between 2020 and 2024 focused on nurse leader’s intervention concerning SDOH. Ten high quality studies were selected and analyzed to identify themes and trends regarding nursing leadership and SDOH.
Results: Integration of SDOH into nursing workflows, policy advocacy, cross sector collaboration and cultural competence are key themes identified. Uses of telehealth and information technology were noted as tools to improve SDOH interventions (Tiase et al., 2022; Reed et al., 2021). As a result, policy advocacy came out as a trend in which nurse leaders molded policies to address systemic inequities (Langins & Llop Gironés, 2024; Rani et al., 2023). In an effort to develop localized solutions, cross sector partnerships and community engagement were critical and cultural competence training was utilized to ensure equity (Sensmeier, 2020, Simoncic et al., 2022).
Conclusion: The results highlight the impact that nurse leaders can have on addressing SDOH. Nurse leaders can and should drive equitable healthcare delivery through the use of technology, advocating for system wide changes and by promoting cultural competence. Further research should look into ways to extend leadership training, intensify technology implementation, and assess the long-term implications of these utilization strategies.