Addressing Health Inequality Assignment Sample

• Subject Name : Nursing

The role of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs)

The health care services are framed to benefit every section of the society and equity in health care sector is considered to be the fairness and justice that everyone should provide with equal opportunity to utilize the health care services to benefit the health. The health equality, on the other hand, implies that there should be equal distribution of the health care resources to provide the same amount of care (Raine et al., 2016). The health care inequality was faced by the first people of Australia and this directly impacted the health care that increases the mortality rate in the population. There are the different factor that leads to health care inequality which includes colonization, discrimination policies, racism and health care practice (Wilson et al., 2016).

One of the articles presented by Coombs (2018) describes the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) that aim to provide the high quality, culturally competent, informed care and reachable care to the Aboriginal population. The organization is formed by the Indigenous individual that aim to deliver multiple clinical and health care services to improve the health status of the Aboriginal population. ACCHS also engage to develop the community by using health promotion that directly increases the reach of the health care services to a different section of the population.

According to the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization (2020) NACCHO aim to promote, expand and develop the health wellbeing of the Aboriginal population. The NACCHO works in collaboration with both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community to promote the wellbeing and discuss the issue that arises in health care. It is running 143 ACCHS across the country to promote the health wellbeing of the Aboriginal population by working over the issue of health-related to health care resources.

The comprehensive primary health care model aims to provide social justice in the health care sector that helps to improve the health status of the individual. The primary care model includes different aspect which includes accessibility, multidisciplinary team, community-driven and culturally competent (White, 2015). One of the local Aboriginal Community Controlled health organizations is the Victorian Aboriginal Health Services. The medical need of the Victorian Indigenous community promotes the establishment of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Services (VAHS).

The organization aims to fulfil the healthcare-related requirement of the community that includes the medical, dental and social need of the individual. The organization aim to address all the medical need of the community by using different services like medical clinic, dental, women’s and children, family counselling, community program and preventative health unit. The organization has also launched Deadly Dan at the League that aims to provide information about controlled tobacco that promotes healthy behaviour. The book aims to promote the ‘Smoke-free man’ that helps to reduce the smoking rate in the population. VAHS aims to provide adequate care to the Victorian Indigenous community to decrease the inequality in the health care that can lead to the improved health status of the Indigenous population (Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, 2019).

Strategy to improve the welcoming environment in hospital: On the Job training of the workforce

Job training at workforce help to understand the different aspect of the cultural belief and values of the individual. The training helps to utilize the cultural competent skill to improve the working environment that provides the more favourable surrounding environment for the Indigenous population. The different aspect that will be going to address by the training includes encouraging individual learning, reframing the environmental setting, improving planning technique, individual work over their population, evaluation of the planning and to establish the goal for the care. The training helps the health care worker to improve their skill and understanding toward their attitude toward improving the hospital environment that provides a stress-free environment for the Indigenous population (Dos Santos, 2019).

The increased understanding of different cultural belief and values of the individual will assist the health care worker to improve their cultural competent skill. The welcoming environment will help the Indigenous population to freely discuss the health-related issue and utilize the health care resources to improve the health status. The poor hospital environment and incompetency of the health care worker increase the inequality of the Indigenous population and there is a need to improve the environment to reduce the inequality. The welcoming environment of the hospital aims to provide social justice in the care service that aims to provide accurate care to every patient to improve the quality of life.

Strategy to improve cultural competency: Communication strategy

The communication strategy aims to form the rapport between the client and health care professional that aims to provide the cultural competent. The communication plays a major role in maintaining the cultural competency and health care professional should be trained for communication technique that can be used while in conversation with Indigenous individual. The communication technique includes the use of non-verbal communication method to improve the conversation and develop the trust of the client. The communication strategy helps the health care professional to improve the cultural competent communication skill that helps the health care professional to increase the comfort of the patient that lead to better health outcome (Brown et al., 2016).

The patient and health care conversation are affected by much aspect that has a direct impact on the health care experience of the individual. The cultural competency directly related to better patient satisfaction as it provides a familiar environment to the patient so that he/she can freely express their issue and get accurate treatment. The inequality in the health care sector also arises a due difference in language, the difference in belief and these can be addressed by improving the communication method. The cultural competent communication directly aims to reduce the disparity in the health care setting and improve the rapport between with the client to provide accurate care. The cultural competency help to provide the culturally appropriate care that directly reduces the inequality in the health care sector.

Strategy to Seek to minimise power differentials: increasing participation of patient and family

The nurses are expected to increase the involvement of the patient and family in the care to provide them with an equal opportunity to the client to prefer the care process. The patient and family centred care help to directly involved improving the quality of care and reducing the recovery time. The patient and family centred care include different aspect like leadership and accountability that include patient should be agreed over the care process by discussing with the health care professional. The next aspect includes teamwork and communication that include equal participation of the client with his/her family in the care by providing time to time information. The Psychological need of the patient should also be considered to provide the patient-centred care that helps to balance the power with the client (Goodridge et al., 2018).

The patient and family participation in the care is directly associated with better health outcome as the care become tailored according to the patient preference that decreases the recovery time. The patient and family participation in the care provides them with equal power to accept or reject the care process according to individual preference. The increasing participation of the client directly increases the feeling of importance that increase the participation of the patient in the care process which lead to positive health results. The equal participation of the patient reduces the accountability of the health care professional as the patient is also equally involved in the care process.

Strategy to ensure that you do not diminish, demean or disempower through your actions: Cultural safe practise

The cultural safe practice helps to improve the working practice and reduce the chances of omission which can cause a negative impact over the patient. The health care professionals are expected to consider the different patient-related aspect like background, values, medical history and relational care. The cultural safe care helps to provide accurate care to the patient to improve the health status. The cultural safe practice tries to decrease the barrier associated with social determinant to provide safe and accurate care to the patient. The different aspect of the cultural safe practice includes developing welcoming space in the hospital, culturally appropriate food in the hospital, cultural specific spiritual need and culturally appropriate care procedure. The cultural safe practice aims to full fill all the cultural related need of the individual to improve quality of care (Schill & Caxaj, 2019).

The cultural safe practice help to provide the culturally appropriate care to the patient by reducing demean that can occur due to cultural incompetency. The health care worker utilizing their cultural competent skill directly increases the chances of patient satisfaction and improves health status. The cultural competent care directly reduces inequality and provides equal care to the Indigenous individual to promote equal health opportunity in the care. The cultural safe practice tries to empower the Indigenous population by providing cultural safe practice that directly helps them to accept and participate in the care process.

References

Brown, E. A., Bekker, H. L., Davison, S. N., Koffman, J., & Schell, J. O. (2016). Supportive care: communication strategies to improve cultural competence in shared decision making.

Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 11(10), 1902–1908. doi:10.2215/cjn.13661215

Coombs. (2018). Primary Health Networks impact on Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 77, 37–46.

Dos Santos, L. (2019). Rural public health workforce training and development: the performance of an undergraduate internship programme in a rural hospital and healthcare centre. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(7), 1259. doi:10.3390/ijerph16071259

Goodridge, D., Henry, C., Watson, E., McDonald, M., New, L., Harrison, E. L. & Rotter, T. (2018). Structured approaches to promote patient and family engagement in treatment in acute care hospital settings: protocol for a systematic scoping review. Systematic Reviews, 7(1), 1-7. doi:10.1186/s13643-018-0694-9

National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organization. (2020). About NACCHO. Retrieved from: https://www.naccho.org.au/about/

Raine, R., Or, Z., Prady, S. & Bevan, G. (2016) Evaluating health-care equity. In: Raine R, Fitzpatrick R, Barratt H, et al. Challenges, solutions and future directions in the evaluation of service innovations in health care and public health. Southampton (UK): NIHR Journals Library, 4(16), 69–84.

Schill, K., & Caxaj, S. (2019). Cultural safety strategies for rural Indigenous palliative care: a scoping review. BMC Palliative Care, 18(1), 1-13 doi: 10.1186/s12904-019-0404-y

Victorian Aboriginal Health Service. (2019). ABOUT VAHS. Retrieved from: https://www.vahs.org.au/about/

White, F. (2015). Primary health care and public health: foundations of universal health systems. Medical Principles and Practice, 24(2), 103–116. doi: 10.1159/000370197

Wilson, A.M., Kelly, J., Magarey, A. (2016). Working at the interface in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health: focusing on the individual health professional and their organization as a means to address health equity. International Journal for Equity in Health, 15(187), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-016-0476-8

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