Context of Nursing and Primary Health Care

Context of Nursing and Primary Health Care

This Assignment is designed to get you to reflect on your life experiences and to consider them against the content you’ve learned so far in NURS1002. This piece is guided, providing questions along the way to help you recognise points in your life that are worth sharing in relation to the context of the Australian Primary Healthcare Setting.

The expectation for you in this assessment is that you answer each question after reflecting on your own experiences and answering it in a way that is informative and expressed clearly. You need to link your experience to that of the PHC setting and draw upon learnings that you’ve come across when reflecting on the question.

The marking rubric helps you to understand the expectations of this assessment task and gives insight into the metrics you will be marked against. Whilst your experiences are your own and, in that respect, valuable, this is not what will be marked against. It will be the quality of information provided, insight expressed through reflection, connection of experience to the PHC setting in Australia and grammar, punctuation and spelling. Please see the rubric for further information.Question 1:

In Australia, when a patient is discharged from hospital, they may have ongoing care needs that are required to complete their recovery or to ensure they can maintain their health and not need to return to hospital. This care can be provided in various places such as clinics, their local community centre or even their own home. For a lot of Australians, this care is easy to access and is financially subsidised. For others, it is not. Location, access to transport and financial hardship can all play a role in people not being able to access these services. Thinking on your experience with healthcare outside of a hospital (this might be you, or someone you know), what was your/their experience with these services and how does this compare to the Australian Primary Health Care Services you’ve learnt about?

Question 2:

 Australia has access to some of the best Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities in the world, and has one of the most diverse and disparate populations of any country. Accessing primary health care can be difficult for people who are new to Australia, or who may not speak English as their native language. If these people can gain entry to PHC services many steps can be taken to improve their experience, such as the use of interpreters and information printed in different languages. However, what services exist currently that help people know the PHC options are available for them to use in Australia? What experiences can you draw on to recognise a time when this would have been valuable to you or someone you know? If this is not something that easily comes to mind, consider how you would feel being sick in a country where you didn’t speak the same language of the native population.

Question 3:

Poverty is an ongoing global issue and can appear in different ways. In 1995 the United Nations adopted two definitions of poverty:

Absolute poverty was defined as:

a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.

Overall poverty takes various forms, including:

lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods; hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; increased morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments and social discrimination and exclusion. It is also characterised by lack of participation in decision making and in civil, social and cultural life. It occurs in all countries: as mass poverty in many developing countries, pockets of poverty amid wealth in developed countries, loss of livelihoods as a result of economic recession, sudden poverty as a result of disaster or conflict, the poverty of low-wage workers, and the utter destitution of people who fall outside family support systems, social institutions and safety nets.

http://www.poverty.ac.uk/definitions-poverty/absolute-and-overall-poverty

Some people in Australia are facing these issues now. Think about what health issues people who experience poverty may experience? What social actions can be taken for this population? What is the Australian Government doing for these people and how can these people access services with the PHC setting to improve their circumstances? How different or similar is your experience of healthcare compared to people experiencing poverty?