The world is indeed a global community, and this is an exciting
time to be a nurse. There are unlimited opportunities to truly make a difference in
promoting social justice, global health equity, and reducing health disparities for all
of the world’s peoples. Nurses provide 60% to 80% of the world’s health care,
although in some rural areas in Africa, nearly 85% of the health care is provided by
nurses (World Health Organization Department of Human Resources for Health,
2008). Thus, it is critical that nurses have an awareness of key global health challenges,
and the roles that they might play in addressing these challenges. One of the
greatest challenges to global health that leads to health disparities is poverty and the
associated problems related to lack of access to adequate food, water, shelter, and
health care. The World Bank estimates that in 2005 about 1.4 billion people (or
25% of the population in the developing world) lived below the international poverty
line of $1.25 a day. Although the percentage of the world’s population living in
poverty has declined from 52% in 1981 to 26% in 2005, there are significant