| Course | IHP 501 Global Health and Diversity |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 10 |
| Paper type | closing reflective journal on health equity |
| Length | About 350 words, 3 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Southern New Hampshire University |
| Program | MPH |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for IHP 501 Module 10
Module Ten Journal
I Started with Tortillas
In the first week of this course, when I began looking at diabetes in Riverside Heights, my first draft blamed tortillas. I wrote that traditional Latino diets high in refined carbohydrates were driving the disease and proposed nutrition classes. My instructor's comment was a single question: why do people who arrived recently, eating those same foods, have lower rates than those who have been here twenty years? I had no reply, and the question ended up reorganizing my whole term.
Braveman and Gruskin (2003) define equity in health in terms of systematic differences between groups with more and less social advantage, differences that are avoidable and unjust. Reading that, I realized my first draft treated the disparity as a matter of individual choice rather than of advantage. The Commission's recommendations, as Marmot et al. (2008) summarize them, pushed me further: change the conditions of everyday life and confront who holds power, income and resources. In Riverside Heights that meant jobs without sick leave, a two-mile trip to a grocery store, a history of disinvestment and immigration policies that keep people from care. Tortillas were never the story.
The listening sessions taught me the second lesson. I arrived with a plan for home visits. Patients told me, politely but clearly, that home visits frightened them. Cultural humility, described as a continuing practice of self-examination, attention to power and partnership with communities (Tervalon & Murray-García, 1998), felt abstract until that moment. I had assumed I knew what help looked like. The patients knew better, and the program changed because they spoke.
I am carrying three habits into my work. When I see a disparity, I will ask what conditions produce it before asking what people are doing wrong. I will bring community members into planning from the start, not after the plan is written. And I will report outcomes by group, so that averages never hide the people who most need attention. I started with tortillas. I am ending with a much longer list of causes, and a better idea of who should help decide what to do about them.
References
Braveman, P., & Gruskin, S. (2003). Defining equity in health. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 57(4), 254-258. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.57.4.254
Marmot, M., Friel, S., Bell, R., Houweling, T. A. J., & Taylor, S. (2008). Closing the gap in a generation: Health equity through action on the social determinants of health. The Lancet, 372(9650), 1661-1669. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61690-6
Tervalon, M., & Murray-García, J. (1998). Cultural humility versus cultural competence: A critical distinction in defining physician training outcomes in multicultural education. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 9(2), 117-125. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2010.0233
What the IHP 501 Module 10 instructions ask for
The closing IHP 501 Journal usually invites you to reflect on how your understanding of health equity, diversity and your own position changed during the course. Write in the first person, aim for roughly 400 to 550 words and support the reflection with two or three sources in APA 7. Focus on a few moments when an assumption was challenged, explain what you understand now and connect the change to course concepts. Close with commitments tied to your work. Instructors respond well to candor about earlier thinking, especially when it shows movement from individual explanations toward structural ones and toward partnership with communities. IHP 501 graders notice clean headings in IHP 501 papers. IHP 501 names and dates need checking before IHP 501 submission.
How this IHP 501 Module 10 journal example is built
This journal comes from a county health coordinator whose first draft blamed a neighborhood's diabetes rates on traditional diets. An instructor's question about recent arrivals' lower rates led her to Braveman and Gruskin's definition of equity and the Commission recommendations Marmot and colleagues summarize, and she began seeing jobs, food access, disinvestment and immigration policy as causes. Listening sessions where patients rejected home visits made cultural humility concrete. She commits to asking about conditions before behaviors, involving communities from the start and reporting outcomes by group, and she returns to the title's tortillas in her last line. IHP 501 students can reuse this structure for IHP 501 work. IHP 501 claims here trace to cited IHP 501 sources.
Where the IHP 501 Module 10 rubric puts the points
Closing reflections in IHP 501 are commonly marked on depth of self-examination, accurate use of equity concepts, connection between experience and evidence, attention to the writer's own position and power, practical commitments, organization and APA 7. Strong journals describe a real shift, often from individual to structural explanations, and show how community voices changed the writer's work. Journals lose credit when they summarize course topics, celebrate diversity in broad strokes or promise things nobody could check. Admitting an early misconception honestly is often the most persuasive evidence of learning in this course. IHP 501 marks favor careful formatting across IHP 501 sections. IHP 501 citations keep every IHP 501 argument credible.
IHP 501 Module 10 help: the mistakes that cost points
In the final IHP 501 week, journals often lose points for listing what was covered, for missing sources, for avoiding the writer's own assumptions and for vague commitments. Another frequent weakness is discussing equity without mentioning power. Name a moment when your thinking changed, connect it to a source, reflect on your position and commit to specific practices. If your program asks you to connect the reflection to named competencies, list them in your IHP 501 notes so each appears naturally in the entry. IHP 501 drafts start well from a IHP 501 outline. IHP 501 feedback already received guides IHP 501 revisions.
Get IHP 501 Module 10 written to your instructions
Share the IHP 501 closing prompt and a moment when your thinking about equity changed. The journal you receive will be candid, tie the shift to course sources, reflect on your own position and end with practices you can carry forward, within 24 to 48 hours, free the first time. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Southern New Hampshire University document.
More IHP 501 papers and related MPH samples
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- IHP 501 Module 2 Social Determinants Paper: Equity, Social Determinants and the Causes of the Causes
- IHP 501 Module 3 Milestone One: Defining the Disparity
- IHP 501 Module 4 Racism and Health Paper: Discrimination and Structural Racism as Determinants of Health
- IHP 501 Module 5 Milestone Two: Community Health Workers and Professional Interpreters
- IHP 501 Module 6 Cultural Humility Paper: Cultural Competence, Cultural Humility and What Training Achieves
- IHP 501 Module 7 Milestone Three: An Intervention Plan Built with the Community
- IHP 501 Module 8 Migration and Health Paper: Immigration as a Social Determinant and the Healthy Migrant Paradox
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IHP 501 Module 10 questions, answered
Where can I find a free IHP 501 Module 10 Journal sample?
Read the whole journal on this page: an MPH student reflects on moving from diet-based explanations to structural causes and cultural humility.
What should a health equity reflection include?
A moment when an assumption changed, the concepts that explain the change, reflection on your own position and commitments for practice.
What is cultural humility?
An ongoing practice of self-examination, attention to power imbalances and partnership with communities, rather than mastery of facts about groups.
Why do explanations based on culture fall short?
They can hide structural causes such as income, working conditions, neighborhood investment and policy that drive disparities.
How can public health workers involve communities?
Bring community members into planning from the start through listening sessions and advisory councils, and let their input change the plan.