Infuse It: Social Justice

This presentation will discuss the infusion of social justice theory and action into on-line clinical and role preparation of nurse practitioner students. The policy documents of NONPF endorse social justice as an essential component of advanced practice education and practice.  However social justice is not clearly defined or articulated in nursing’s literature as a fundamental role behavior of nurse practitioners.  Faculty is challenged to create a bridge, to infuse social justice into nurse practitioner education and practice.  Fortunately theories of social justice are discussed in the literature of the social sciences, public health, economics, philosophy, religious studies, feminism, economics and law.

The focus of this presentation will be on bridge building—linking and infusing social justice theory into the education and role behavior of nurse practitioner students.  This methodology has four components:  1) identifying, naming and disseminating evidence about unjust acts and practices; 2) acting to remove/remedy the identified injustice and to alleviate the harm that has been done; 3) naming the root cause(s) of injustice; and 4) changing systems, policies and practices, that perpetuate injustice and affect the health of people and the environment.