Community Resources and Referral Navigation

Community resource navigation is an essential competency for practical nurses that involves identifying patient needs beyond clinical care, connecting patients and families with appropriate community services, and following up to ensure that referrals result in actual service access. The social determinants of health (SDOH) framework provides the theoretical foundation for this practice, recognizing that health outcomes are shaped by the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. Research consistently demonstrates that social determinants account for 30 to 55 percent of health outcomes, exceeding the contribution of clinical healthcare services (estimated at 10 to 20 percent). The practical nurse encounters patients whose health is profoundly affected by these determinants daily, making SDOH screening and resource referral a core nursing function. The five key domains of social determinants include economic stability (employment, income, food security, housing stability), education access and quality (literacy, language, early childhood education), healthcare access and quality (insurance coverage, provider availability, health literacy), neighborhood and built environment (housing quality, transportation, safety, environmental conditions), and social and community context (social support, discrimination, civic participation, incarceration history)....