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- Subject Name : Nursing
Reflective Piece
Table of Contents
Statement 1: More than 2 family members creates disruption to the staffs and roommates in hospital
Statement 2: The cultural value and beliefs is deteriorating the health aspect of aboriginals
Statement 3: There is equity in health care among the aboriginal and non-aboriginal population of Australia
Reference list
Statement 1: More than 2 Family Members Creates Disruption to The Staffs and Roommates in Hospital
The process of caregiving is quite a critical task and this demands the skill of the nurse at an interdisciplinary level. Miyasaka et al. (2015) has supported and mentioned that along with the process of caregiving, the practicing and registered nurses have to imply skill in decision making and this is highly necessary for the management of the patients of the critical care unit. The process of decision making is itself a critical task for the nurse who demands attention and concentration of the caregiver. However, in the major cases, it has been noticed that the family members and patients’ associates create commotion in the room of caregiving which hinders the task of the nurses by distracting their attention. Being a student of nursing, I also believe that same and in my personal experience, I have also noticed the same thing in a few contexts. The presence of a patient associates, especially the family members of the patient creates noise in the patient’s room at hospital. As per the view of Riley (2015), the crisis regarding the presence of patient associates and especially family members is majorly faced by the nurses of ICU and trauma care unit. The individualistic relationship of the family members with the patient and socio-demographic aspect is tagged with the behaviour of the patient associates. I have personally noticed that in trauma care or ICU, the family members of the patient behaviours emotionally which often infringes the logical level of behaviour. Hence, the decorum that should be maintained by the visitors in the hospital also gets infringed. In this context Riley (2015) has mentioned that the caregivers of the trauma care unit have to manage the family members of the patient and have to pacify them. This factor distracts the nurses from performing the act of caregiving and also the critical thinking process. Hence, I should definitely support the viewpoint that the presence of more than two individuals from the family members of the patients creates disruption to the staff and more than two individuals should not be allowed at a time in the patient's room. On the contrary, Manias (2015) has stated that communication with patient associates is highly necessary for gathering data regarding the medical history of the patient. In this case, the nurses have to verbally communicate with the family members of the patient. Hence, from this angle, I should mention that the presence of the family members is necessary for sharing information about the patients. However, verbal communication with more than 2 individuals at a time in the ward can create noise in the word which may create distraction to the other patients. Patients with the sleep problem, irritability or postoperative delirium often react negatively towards sound or the presence of an unknown person at the room. Hence, from this angle, it can be mentioned that the presence of more than 2 family members should be prohibited and the decorum of the visitors should be gently reminded before entering in the ward.
Statement 2: The Cultural Value and Beliefs Is Deteriorating the Health Aspect of Aboriginals
Every culture has its specific value, belief and practice which impart immense influence over the psychological orientation of the individuals tagged with that community. I have exactly observed the same thing while analysing the participation of the aboriginal people in the mainstream healthcare system of Australia. As per the viewpoint of Ward et al. (2018), the moral value and cultural belief of the aboriginal population of Australia is the main hindrance which is triggering poor health of the people of the same community. In this domain, wide researches have been done and Li (2017) has mentioned that only for the cultural barrier , the aboriginal population shows lack of consciousness in getting associated with the mainstream health develop programme which has minimised the life expectancy rate up to 11.5% than that of the non-aboriginal population. I found this data quite interesting to support the view that the cultural value and belief of aboriginals have deteriorated the health condition of the same. Lin et al. (2016) has further added that the low birth weight, prenatal mortality and infant health aspect is also getting negatively affected with the lack of consciousness of the aboriginal population towards health. On the other hand, an unique but primitive type of treatment procedure has been identified among the aboriginals who are tagged with their age-old cultural beliefs. This has also invoked a crisis in the curing of different types of diseases. Caffery et al. (2018) has mentioned that aboriginals of Torres Strait Island have faith over the use of herbs as medicine. I think that this factor has created major ignorance of the indigenous population towards modern medical science and acceptance of the same.
The predominance of special types of diseases like HIV or other STDs has been noticed among the aboroiginal population along with cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Treloar et al. (2016) has research regarding the HIV predominance over the aboriginal population and has mentioned that the community is reluctant towards medical screening and have consciousness in observing regular routine work and age-old practices. This factor has also turned the community reluctant about the minimisation of smoking habit which is continuously imparting negative impact over the health aspect of the community.
Additionally, I have considered the face of the communication barrier which has created a gap between the indigenous and non-indigenous people of Australia and has triggered poor health conditions. As per the viewpoint of Li (2017), the language of the aboriginal population is not understood by everyone who has created hindrance in the initiation of health campaigns for the aboriginal people. Moreover, in the process of caregiving and treatment, the aboriginal people also face difficulty to express them. Additionally, due to the gap in the education , cultural value and communication, the economic power of the baoriginal people is also not equal to that of non-aboriginal people. As per my analysis, this is an added factor which has degraded the health quality of the aboriginal people.
Statement 3: There Is Equity in Health Care Among the Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Population of Australia
Each and every person has equal rights in obtaining clinical support and this is not only applicable for the context of Australia but also at the global level. The human right of Australia have eradicated any type of social, economic, political or religious discrimination regarding the access of an individual to health care. This has been represented as ‘right to health’ and this has promoted equity in the province of healthcare to the aboriginal population and other clients by the healthcare organisation in Australia (Australian human right commission 2019). In a few cases, the discrepancy and poor health condition has been noticed among the aboriginal population of Australia. This has triggered a gap in the standard of living and quality of health between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal community of Australia. However, I have identified that from the government level, reformation activity regarding the betterment of the quality of health of the aboriginal has been initiated which has helped to minimize the mentioned gap. As per the government report, the health campaign ‘close the gap’ has been started which is directly targeted to the indigenous population of the country and specially for the Torres Strait Islanders (Australian human right commission, 2020).
In the above graph, it has been identified that the life expectancy of aboriginal and non-aboriginal people is quite closer than that of the previous years and this has happened with the active community health development campaign ‘close the gap’ organised from the government level.
No racial, social and ethnicity-related discrimination is done in the time of clinical treatment of the patients and this has helped in the implementation of the equality and equal right to all individuals in the healthcare system. However, Cullen et al. (2016) has opposed and mentioned that the native language of the aboriginal people often creates the lack of communication in the process of caregiving. Moreover, proper formatted medical history is also not obtained very often while providence of clinical care to the aboriginal people. As per my level of thinking and analytical power, this invokes a crisis in the process of treatment and nursing as well. Hence, the implementation of special training regarding the communication with aboriginal population should be implemented to better up the level of caregiving for them. Again, I should support the fact that the maintenance of equity in providence of healthcare to the aboriginal and non-aboriginal population is well-practiced in the Australian healthcare system. As per the idea of Isaacs (2016), discrimination on the ground of language, religion, ethnicity or socio-cultural level is unethical in regards to the providence of healthcare support. This has been tagged with the SDG goals and the ethics of nursing as well. Hence, I think that this also has a role in the maintenance of equality for care providence. Prioritisation to the conservation of their culture along with the aspect of kinship, family and community has helped the aboriginal community to get more involved in the mainstream healthcare system of Australia. This has helped in the minimisation of the inequality.
Reference List for Communication in Nursing
Australian human right commission (2019). 7 Your right to health. https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/7-your-right-health#:~:text=Medicare%20entitles%20eligible%20people%20to,some%20circumstances%2C%20allied%20health%20practitioners
Australian human right commission (2020). Close the Gap (2020). https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-social-justice/publications/close-gap-2020?_ga=2.14
Caffery, L. J., Bradford, N. K., Smith, A. C., & Langbecker, D. (2018). How telehealth facilitates the provision of culturally appropriate healthcare for Indigenous Australians. Journal of telemedicine and telecare, 24(10), 676-682. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357633X18795764
Cullen, P., Clapham, K., Hunter, K., Treacy, R., & Ivers, R. (2016). Challenges to driver licensing participation for Aboriginal people in Australia: a systematic review of the literature. International journal for equity in health, 15(1), 134. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0422-9
Isaacs, D. (2016). Are healthcare professionals working in Australia's immigration detention centres condoning torture?. Journal of medical ethics, 42(7), 413-415. https://jme.bmj.com/content/42/7/413.short
Li, J. L. (2017). Cultural barriers lead to inequitable healthcare access for aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders. Chinese Nursing Research, 4(4), 207-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cnre.2017.10.009
Lin, I., Green, C., & Bessarab, D. (2016). ‘Yarn with me’: applying clinical yarning to improve clinician–patient communication in Aboriginal health care. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 22(5), 377-382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/PY16051
Manias, E. (2015). Communication relating to family members' involvement and understandings about patients' medication management in hospital. Health Expectations, 18(5), 850-866. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.12057
Miyasaka, K. W., Martin, N. D., Pascual, J. L., Buchholz, J., & Aggarwal, R. (2015). A simulation curriculum for management of trauma and surgical critical care patients. Journal of surgical education, 72(5), 803-810. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2015.03.001
Riley, J. B. (2015). Communication in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SwndCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=family+member+creating+problem+in+nursing&ots=YZvr04unvD&sig=wnMgRiHsnGBAy7935WWet8D1OCQ
Treloar, C., Jackson, L. C., Gray, R., Newland, J., Wilson, H., Saunders, V., ... & Brener, L. (2016). Multiple stigmas, shame and historical trauma compound the experience of Aboriginal Australians living with hepatitis C. Health Sociology Review, 25(1), 18-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/14461242.2015.1126187
Ward, J. S., Hawke, K., & Guy, R. J. (2018). Priorities for preventing a concentrated HIV epidemic among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. The Medical Journal of Australia, 209(1), 56. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2018/209/1/priorities-preventing-concentrated-hiv-epidemic-among-aboriginal-and-torres
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