Injustice, Suffering, Difference: How Can Community Health Nursing Address the Suffering of Others?

Abstract

Social justice brings to life the purpose of public health—improving a population's overall health and well-being. Critiques of the concept demonstrate that social justice is inconsistently defined and rarely is acted upon, and continuation of these injustices constitutes a form of suffering. Seeing one's self as disconnected from others makes their suffering normal. Viewing others from an ethical, moral, and human rights perspective helps one understand that the well-being of the self and the individual rests on the well-being of the collective other; this obligates each person to ameliorate and, if possible, prevent the suffering of others.