NUR 302 Concepts In Nursing
Question:
Discussion: What Can Nurses Do?
Many people, most of them in tropical countries of the Third World, die of preventable, curable diseases. . . . Malaria, tuberculosis, acute lower-respiratory infections—in 1998, these claimed 6.1 million lives. People died because the drugs to treat those illnesses are nonexistent or are no longer effective. They died because it doesn’t pay to keep them alive.
–Ken Silverstein, Millions for Viagra. Pennies for Diseases of the Poor, The Nation, July 19, 1999
Unfortunately, since 1998, little has changed. For many individuals living in impoverished underdeveloped countries, even basic medical care is difficult to obtain. Although international agencies sponsor outreach programs and corporations, and although nonprofit organizations donate goods and services, the level of health care remains far below what is necessary to meet the needs of struggling populations. Polluted water supplies, unsanitary conditions, and poor nutrition only exacerbate the poor health prevalent in these environments. Nurses working in developed nations have many opportunities/advantages that typically are not available to those in underdeveloped countries. What can nurses do to support their international colleagues and advocate for the poor and underserved of the world?
In this Discussion, you will consider the challenges of providing health care for the world’s neediest citizens, as well as how nurses can advocate for these citizens.
To prepare:
Consider the challenges of providing health care in underdeveloped countries.
Conduct research in the Walden Library and other reliable resources to determine strategies being used to address these challenges.
Using this week’s Learning Resources, note the factors that impact the ability of individuals in underdeveloped nations to obtain adequate health care.
Consider strategies nurses can use to advocate for health care at the global level. What can one nurse do to make a difference?
By Day 3
Post a description of at least two challenges related to providing adequate health care in underdeveloped countries. Then, describe two strategies you might use to address those challenges, and explain why. Finally, describe one strategy nurses might use in advocating for health care at the global level, and explain why this would be an effective strategy.
Answer:
Role of Nurses in Underdeveloped Countries
Providing proper healthcare and nursing service in underdeveloped countries is a challenge for the WHO. Poverty, illiteracy, lack of health facilities and resources, ignorance, and a bad leadership affect the health of people and produce a wide range of diseases such as Tuberculosis, Malnutrition, Malaria, and some acute lower-respiratory infections. Another challenge is the improper execution of health-related programs that even failed to spread awareness among these people. Although one of the major challenges is poverty that causes an unhygienic environment for people and that causes several diseases. For more than 1 billion people worldwide are living less than US$1 per day, and that causes the modern medicine and healthcare facilities out of their reach (Akay & Tamura, 2015). Some African countries such as Nigeria, Uganda, etc., and some Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal etc. are the good examples of such type of countries where people are struggling and fighting with some avoidable diseases because of their poverty, lack of resources, and illiteracy of people about the causes of diseases (Parkash, Younis, & Ward, 2015).
Two Major Challenges
The major problems in providing healthcare services in underdeveloped countries are poverty and lack of healthcare facilities and resources. People are suffering from lack of resources and even they do not have any idea about any disease as well. A large number of research papers explains that good health is only possible if the government formulate properly execute their poverty reduction programs and provide them essential healthcare facilities and resources. Poverty not only affects the health of people rather it also affects the societies and economies as well. Poverty is the root cause of all health problems and diseases (Strasser, 2010). The inequality among people in underdeveloped countries is a result of the failure of healthcare services to reach the poor. Poverty disabled the government to launch proper healthcare programs in those areas where people are suffering from polio, tuberculosis, and malaria etc. (So, Cummings, de Calvo, Day, Houlahan, Nevidjon, & Were, 2016). Poverty is the major cause of illiteracy of people and lack of awareness about the disease that can easily be avoided with sanitation and cleanliness programs. Thus, if the underdeveloped countries want to remove these disease they should work on avoiding poverty and spread awareness among people about the healthcare facilities they are providing for avoiding such diseases.
Two Strategies to Resolve Major Challenges in Healthcare
The two major strategies can be implemented by the government to resolve the health-related challenges in underdeveloped countries is first providing education to those people who belong to below poverty line and make them aware about the health-related issues that how they can avoid such disease with sanity and cleanliness. The second strategy that can be adopted by the government is to provide free access of basic medical facilities and medicines in collaboration with private organisations and NGO’s to those people who are unable to get these services at its cost. In the first strategy, the role of government is so crucial that how they execute and regulate such programs in those areas where people are suffering from poverty. The government can provide free education with the help of self-service working volunteers who are not connected with any NGO or organisation. In the second strategy, government can use the medical officers, workers, and employees such as doctor and nurses to provide essential basic medical facilities to those poor people who are unable to access it because of their poor economic conditions (Bryant?Lukosius, Spichiger, Martin, Stoll, Kellerhals, Fliedner, & Schwendimann, 2016). Here the role of nurses is so crucial because they can prove themselves as the best channel between government and poor people to fight with those diseases which arise only because of poverty and cleanliness.
Role of Nurses in providing healthcare facilities and resources in underdeveloped countries
Nurses are the key factor between government and people to provide better health care services, medicines, resources, and facilities in underdeveloped countries. A nurse can serve as an agent of government who can perform multiple roles in healthcare programs in all the underdeveloped countries. Nurses can provide basic medical assistance and necessary medicines to those people who are suffering from disease and poverty. They can avail the basic medicines and resources that provide by the government on free of cost. Nurses can also work in collaboration with NGO or with some private hospitals where people need basic medical facilities and they cannot access these medicines and resources because of their poor conditions (Busse, Aboneh, & Tefera, 2014).
Apart from this, a nurse can educate the people about the various precautions, cures, and symptoms of the disease. Thus, nurses can play an important role in providing medical assistance in underdeveloped countries and serve as a mediator between the government and people to fight with health-related issues and help people to prevent it by providing them healthcare education.
References
Akay, M., & Tamura, T. (2015). Global Healthcare: Advances and Challenges [Scanning the Issue]. Proceedings of the IEEE, 103(2), 147-149.
Bryant?Lukosius, D., Spichiger, E., Martin, J., Stoll, H., Kellerhals, S. D., Fliedner, M., & Schwendimann, R. (2016). Framework for evaluating the impact of advanced practice nursing roles. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 48(2), 201-209.
Busse, H., Aboneh, E. A., & Tefera, G. (2014). Learning from developing countries in strengthening health systems: an evaluation of personal and professional impact among global health volunteers at Addis Ababa University’s Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (Ethiopia). Globalization and health, 10(1), 64.
Parkash, J., Younis, M. Z., & Ward, W. (2015). Healthcare for the ageing populations of countries of Middle East and North Africa. Ageing International, 40(1), 3-12.
So, W. K., Cummings, G. G., de Calvo, L. E. A., Day, S. W., Houlahan, K., Nevidjon, B. M., & Were, P. A. (2016). Enhancement of oncology nursing education in low-and middle-income countries: Challenges and strategies. Journal of Cancer Policy, 8, 10-16.
Strasser, R. (2010). Rural health around the world: challenges and solutions [online]. Retrieve from: https://academic.oup.com/fampra/article/20/4/457/625248.
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