Leadership Paper

Part 1: Geography Matters

Research shows that life expectancy, chronic disease prevalence, and access to care can vary dramatically between zip codes, even when just a few miles apart.

• Identify two neighboring zip codes 70805 and 70807 (local to your state, clinical site, or an area of interest).
• Compare at least two health indicators, such as:
• Life expectancy
• Infant or maternal mortality
• Rates of chronic disease (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, asthma)
• Access to primary care or specialty services
• Briefly describe key factors that may explain these differences (e.g., income, housing, environmental exposure, transportation, education, food access, racism, policy decisions).

You may use public data sources such as county health rankings, state health department data, census data, or peer-reviewed literature.

Part 2: The Nurse Leader Perspective

• Discuss how nurse leaders can influence health outcomes related to geographic inequities at the following levels:
• Clinical practice
• Healthcare organization/system
• Community partnerships
• Policy or advocacy
• Describe concrete leadership actions you could realistically take in your first 13 years of NP practice to address geographic-based health disparities.

Part 3: Reflection

• Reflect on how understanding geographic health inequities may influence:
• Your clinical decision-making
• Your leadership identity
• Your sense of professional responsibility as an advanced practice nurse
• Personal Bias and Professional Practice- leadership in advanced practice nursing requires ongoing self-awareness.

Here are the rubric to my discussion post. I have already wrote up my paper. I would like you to edit and find resources. Please do not using big wording. I would like it to sound like me. You may use public data sources such as county health rankings, state health department data, census data, or peer-reviewed literature. If you use peer reviewed literature from 2018-present.