Disparities In The Health Care System Have Had An Impact On Access To Urologic Health Care, Which Is Cause For Concern - Society Of Urologic Nurses

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Also Included In: Urology / Nephrology
Article Date: 14 May 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Lack of access to adequate and affordable health insurance, inability to pay for care, discrimination and low health literacy are all factors that limit or influence access to health care. With limited access, people cannot seek care for the complex and often debilitating symptoms associated with urologic health issues. The Society of Urologic Nurses and Associates (SUNA) has released a position statement announcing urologic health care is the right of all people and no person should be denied necessary services.

According to the statement, "Access to Health Care," SUNA believes expanding funding programs to help people pay for urologic health care services is a key step. The association supports initiatives that promote shared leadership of this issue.

In addition, SUNA seeks to promote awareness of the prevalence of low health literacy in the United States. Approximately 1/3 of the American adult population has limited health literacy, less knowledge about health care, more health issues and higher health care costs. With improved health literacy, people are better able to process and understand health information and make more appropriate decisions about care.

SUNA's statement comes in response to the Codes of Ethics for Nurses developed by the International Council of Nurses and the American Nurses Association which states nurses have a shared responsibility with other health care professionals and society to ensure the health and social needs of the public are met.

The position statement was written by the Access to Urologic Health Care Task Force, chaired by Jeffrey Guse, RT, RDMS, RVT, CUA, senior sonographer/urodynamics coordinator at Delta Medix, Scranton, PA. It was approved by the SUNA Board of Directors in April 2008.

The full statement is available as a pdf on SUNA's Web site, www.suna.org