NURS1102 Primary Health Care | Complexities of Human Diseases
Questions:
Describe the type or range of services provided at the primary health care service you will be attending
Service organisation websites and annual reports are probably the most useful sources of information. Please DO NOT contact the clinical venue, use publically available information!
What are the nursing roles? Do nurses work as part of an inter-disciplinary team? Do they work as part of a team or is their practice autonomous? Is the focus predominantly primary care or primary health care?
Identify the socio-demographic characteristics of the core client group who use this primary health care service.
Useful sources of information are likely to include organisation websites, local council websites and ABS data for the local government area (LGA).
If you are in services that draw from a state wide client base or a very specific type of client e.g. in prisons, the resources that are more likely to be helpful may be more generic e.g. correctional facility/forensic resources than geographical demographic data.
Use the data to explore who is more likely to end up in prison. What socio-demographic characteristics are most prevalent/common within this community?
This does not have to be exact/precise to the specific location of your placement venue! The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate that you have thought about the role of the nurse, the clients and client issues you are likely to encounter and accessed theory to inform your preparation for placement.
Discuss how the socio-demographic characteristics you have identified may influence the health behaviours or health outcomes of the client group
This requires that you make inferences from the data.
Which factors influence their health? If your clientele were homeless, how might their financial and social circumstances influence how much they use health care services, or which types of health care services they might use? What are homeless people more likely to prioritise when it comes to their health?
If a person is homeless and a diabetic, how useful is it to teach them to test their BSLs, when they can’t afford the equipment to monitor these? How helpful is it to provide nutritional advice, when they have little control over when, how frequently or what they eat? How important is it likely to be to a homeless person to spend whatever financial resources they have on medication, compared to food or shelter?
If you are working with older adults, what are the most common health conditions/ issues they experience? You are just demonstrating that you are thinking about the types of clients you are likely to be working with and their likely issues. There should be a lot of material in text books and in journals relating to how to keep older people well and connected to their community, which is really what the last question is asking for – theory to support they types of activities you will be undertaking.
Discuss the theoretical knowledge relating to the socio-demographic characteristics you have identified and their potential influence on nursing practice in this setting. Explain how this will influence and be applied during your clinical placement.
Think abstractly about the consequences of the socio-demographic factors and how these might influence HOW you work with your clientele.
Which factors influence their health? If your clientele were homeless, how might their financial and social circumstances influence the types of health care activities the nurse engages in to address their health needs? What is the health literacy of this client group likely to be?
What measures may you need to consider for the way you communicate health information, and may there be potential issues with general communication?
What can the nurse do to minimise or counteract these factors? The nurse is likely to focus on advocating for and perhaps lobbying for an increase in affordable housing options. The nurse may be involved in providing free health checks or clinical care. The nurse could be involved in setting up food kitchens, a clothing exchange, educational support programs etc.
Answers:
Introduction
The ever-changing world has resulted to the rise of a series of situations and events leading to the complexities of human diseases and sufferings. Proper supervision and steps to outnumber the cause can be the effective steps to enumerate the diseases. In this context, a number of questions will be answered based on a the services provided by a particular primary healthcare unit, and the steps they have taken in order to establish themselves as one of the effective healthcare providers. The Hopper’s lane General Practice Clinic, situated near Melbourne, undertakes actions that help the community residing near the clinic by supporting their health needs (Hopperslanegp.com.au, 2017). The report aims at making it clear to the readers regarding the types and range of services offered by the clinic. The demography of the community attending the clinic and the health related issues that the community faces.
Type and Range of service
The Hopper’s lane general clinic is a newly situated general family friendly clinic, which concentrates mainly in serving the communities located near Wyndham. There are different kinds of healthcare services being rendered depending on the medical attention that is required and desired by its patients. There are different sections that attend the different and diversified healthcare requirements according to their own specializations (Fiscella, Burstin & Nerenz, 2014). Under their general practice schedules, they take care of the acute illnesses and looks after chronic health issues. It also undertakes family and woman healthcare issues relating to maternity and other problems that might arise . They monitor children’s health and issues relating to the growth and development of the individuals. Under the vasectomy section, they undertake actions in order to help in family planning and development accordingly.
The other sections of this general clinic concentrates mainly on diseases relating to travel and in curing the diseases accordingly. The professional doctors in this section of the clinic are attending diseases like hepatitis (A and B), typhoid, yellow fever and the like. Likewise, other sections concentrate mainly on injury prevention and minor injury management (Wakeley, King & Wilton, 2016). It also undertakes ways to resolve the issues relating to medication of the industrial and the aviation sector, and the medical checkups required before pre employment.
The healthcare services rendered by the clinic is broadly classified aiming at different kinds of issues that the patients face. The cosmetic remedies and remedies in the field of chronic diseases are also being well treated in the general clinic assuring a good health of the patients. the patients opting for immunizations are taken care of in the same clinic. It is most supposedly a family clinic, which aims at serving ever members of the family, irrespective of the patient’s age group or the status of the patient (Holman & Walker, 2017). Moreover, there is a diversity that can be noticed in the clinic, which adheres to the changing trends and requirements in the healthcare of the patient.
Socio-demographic characteristics of the community opting for the services
According to the results of the Wyndham Housing Survey (WHS), Wyndham is a diversified community. The characteristics tend to vary between the district areas. These particular variations reflect the status of the people living in the area. Healthcare is the major employment industry for all the districts of Wyndham (Allen, et al., 2017). It is considered that Wyndham experienced a heavy growth of population across Australia.
The education rate is relatively low in Wyndham as the WHS report stated that many districts still are affected by the lower rates of higher education attained by the students there (Ensocare.com., 2017). Manufacturing and health industry being the two sectors that supported more than a half lives in Wyndham accounts to its source of income being derived from the industrial sectors.
The influence of the socio-demographic characteristics on health outcomes
The socio-demographic characteristics create a vast influence on the health outcomes of the region. The community in the region, having a diversified background, has different and diversified healthcare requirements depending on the culture and language and the mentality of the people living in the community (Camden et al., 2017). Moreover, the important criterion that influences the diversification in the healthcare is simply the differences that the people have due to their respective habits and the manner of work they perform.
The source of income in this part of the world is based on the industrial sector, which might result to serious health hazards and other problems (Chen et al., 2016). Problems might also arise due to the emission of harmful elements in the industrial sector, which might be harmful for the existing and the coming generations.
A certain section of the people in Wyndham ran out of food, as they could not afford. However, the WHS report also stated that a person, at Wyndham, could raise money in an emergency from family friends as fast as was possible. It portrayed the strength of the community they live in. due to overpopulation (as was mentioned by many reports that it suffers from a rise of population over the past ten years) (Funk & McCombs, 2017).
Theoretical knowledge of the characteristics and its influence on nursing
In accordance to the common concepts, nursing includes four major factors that influence the services being rendered by the clinic. The four factors include the patient, the environment in which the patient resides, the health condition of the patient and nursing itself with its goals and functions (Padgett et al., 2017). The patient and the environment the patient is from helps in determining the health issues the person might suffer-relating to the person’s exposure to the industrial or environmental wastes. The health condition of the patient determines the sustainability and development of the patient’s health status. The health issues of the patient and the strategies that the nurse formulates in order to provide a better treatment to the patient, which accounts to the effective framework of nursing.
The socio-demographic structure of the community hugely influences the nursing strategies taken in evaluating and developing an effective path of nursing. The densely populated areas of the region need more attention than the other portions as the diseases tend to brood in the densely populated areas due to scarcity of food or lack of proper sanitation facilities (Yakovleva, 2017). Moreover, the effects of over population are often a burden on the land and the available finite resources that seems to deplete with the passage of time, resulting to the scarcity. The denser the population of the area the higher is the mortality rate. Nursing in these areas needs to consider these factors and formulate strategies in accordance with the situation to cope up the crisis. Wyndham is a diversified region, with people from all religions and sects and culture mingling, thus resulting to different healthcare issues being faced by the healthcare executives or the nurse in general.
The possible steps that the nurse can take
The nurse can take steps to improve the availability of the resources that was scarce- that being the cause of the disease (Arpey, Gaglioti & Rosenbaum, 2017). Resources like food and clean water, a better hygiene- that being a necessity to lead a healthy life and by introducing proper sanitation, which might help in eradicating the health related issues of the patient. The nurse can promote safety of the patient by recognizing the psychological response of the body, of the patient, due to the health conditions (Cherry & Jacob, 2016).
The nurse might also make use of the intellect by identifying the emotions, which are being interrelated with the disease and by the proper monitoring and undertaking effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills eradicating the misconceptions that brood over the patient’s mind (Gopee & Galloway, 2017). The nurse in order to make the process of healing more effective must consider a therapeutic atmosphere. A patient who has worked in the industrial sector is already being exposed to many toxic and non-toxic wastes that affect the health of the individual. Keeping the patient away from such environment makes it a possible measure to undermine the effects of the previous disease of the patient.
The utmost role of a nurse is to understand and correlate the environment to which the patient belongs to and the health issue the patient is facing (Nursingworld.org, 2017). The proper evaluation of the background can only lead to effective healthcare service being rendered by the clinic. The evaluation is an important step must be considered by the nurse in order to make the treatment procedure more lucid and clean.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above analysis it is quite clear that the healthcare facilities and the health outcomes largely depend on the socio-demographic structure of a particular area. The literacy rate, the economic background, and the source of income of the particular community also reflect the health outcomes of the people. The report aims at concentrating mainly on a primary healthcare clinic situated near Wyndham, Hopper’s Lane General Practice clinic, which aims at providing healthcare solutions to the community. The pros and cons are being discussed in this analysis and recommendations as to improve the services that they provide.
References
Allen, M. L., Lê Cook, B., Carson, N., Interian, A., La Roche, M., & Alegría, M. (2017). Patient-provider therapeutic alliance contributes to patient activation in community mental health clinics. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 44(4), 431-440.
Arpey, N. C., Gaglioti, A. H., & Rosenbaum, M. E. (2017). How Socioeconomic Status Affects Patient Perceptions of Health Care: A Qualitative Study. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 2150131917697439.
Camden, C., Rivard, L. M., Hurtubise, K., Héguy, L., & Berbari, J. (2017). Can a Community of Practice Improve Physical Therapists' Self-Perceived Practice in Developmental Coordination Disorder?. Physical Therapy, pzx041.
Chen, M., Ogunseitan, O. A., Wang, J., Chen, H., Wang, B., & Chen, S. (2016). Evolution of electronic waste toxicity: Trends in innovation and regulation. Environment international, 89, 147-154.
Cherry, B., & Jacob, S. R. (2016). Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Ensocare.com. (2017). How Demographics Impact Healthcare Delivery. Ensocare.com. Retrieved 13 September 2017, from https://www.ensocare.com/resource-center/how-demographics-impact-health-care-delivery
Fiscella, K., Burstin, H. R., & Nerenz, D. R. (2014). Quality measures and sociodemographic risk factors: to adjust or not to adjust. Jama, 312(24), 2615-2616.
Funk, M. J., & McCombs, M. (2017). Strangers on a theoretical train: Inter-media agenda setting, community structure, and local news coverage. Journalism Studies, 18(7), 845-865.
Gopee, N., & Galloway, J. (2017). Leadership and management in healthcare. Sage.
Holman, D., & Walker, A. (2017). Social Quality and Health: Examining Individual and Neighbourhood Contextual Effects Using a Multilevel Modelling Approach. Social Indicators Research, 1-26.
Hopperslanegp.com.au. (2017). Hoppers lane general practice clinic. Hopperslanegp.com.au. Retrieved 15 September 2017, from https://hopperslanegp.com.au/
Nursingworld.org. (2017). 51. Delivering Nursing Care: Current Factors to Consider. Nursingworld.org. Retrieved 13 September 2017, from https://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/JournalTopics/Delivering-Nursing-Care-Current-Factors-to-Consider
Padgett, J., Gossett, K., Mayer, R., Chien, W. W., & Turner, F. (2017). Improving Patient Safety through High Reliability Organizations. The Qualitative Report, 22(2), 410.
Wakeley, J., King, L., & Wilton, P. R. (2016). Effects of the population pedigree on genetic signatures of historical demographic events. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201601080.
Yakovleva, N. (2017). Corporate social responsibility in the mining industries. Routledge.
