Barriers to Adequate Healthcare Paper

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. Barriers to Adequate Healthcare Paper. 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? Discuss 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.

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Introduction

Healthcare challenges have led to many citizens form underdeveloped countries dying of preventable, curable diseases. Ineffective drugs, financial burden, and poverty have made medical care is difficult to obtain. The needs of the population have not been met due to pollution, poor sanitation, and poor nutrition. However, the nurses have a role to implement strategies that would address these changes globally.

Challenges Related to Providing Adequate Health Care in Underdeveloped Countries

Cost of healthcare is high due to the huge financial implication of financing healthcare service delivery. The cost of training healthcare professionals, conducting research, and acquiring medical equipment and supplies has led inadequate healthcare provision in the developed countries (Orach 2015). In addition, communicable diseases, preventable and curable disease are still on the high rise despite the efforts by the underdeveloped countries to bring these diseases under control. Barriers to Adequate Healthcare Paper.

Cultural practices in the underdeveloped countries have contributed to new infections and transmission of communicable disease, making it difficult to fight the diseases (Peters, Garg, Bloom, et al., 2015). The consequence is a high prevalence of curable and preventable diseases among the citizens of the underdeveloped countries, leading to inadequate healthcare service provisions.

Strategies to Address these Challenges

To address the challenges of inadequate financial resources, there should be a cost-sharing plan of the cost of healthcare provisions between the patients, healthcare providers, insurance companies, and the government (Starasser, 2015). Legislative measures should be implemented to provide a framework for sharing the costs associated with such service delivery to the patients in these underdeveloped countries. The challenge of cultural practices should be addressed by providing culturally competent healthcare that respects the cultural beliefs and practices of various patients (Peters, Garg Bloom Get al., 2014). The culturally competent healthcare will ensure that only good practices in healthcare are encouraged to reduce the prevalence of communicable, curable, and preventable disease.

Strategies Nurses Can Use Address these Challenges

One of the most effective strategies that nurses might use in advocating for health care at the global level is using their professional nursing associations such as the American Nurses Association to lobby for the healthcare changes they would prefer (Busse, Aboneh & Tefera, 2014). This strategy is good because it brings together all nurses across the U.S with a common goal of achieving adequate healthcare provisions for all citizens. It will thus make the provision of Healthcare a professional obligation for ANA members and ensure its effective implementation. Barriers to Adequate Healthcare Paper.

References

Orach C. G. (2015). Health equity: challenges in low-income countries. African health sciences, 9 Suppl 2(Suppl 2), S49-51.

Peters, D. H., Garg, A., Bloom, G., Walker, D. G., Brieger, W. R., & Rahman, M. H. (2015). Poverty and access to health care in developing countries. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1136(1), 161-171.

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.

Starasser R (2015). Rural health around the world: challenges and solutions, Family Practice, Volume 20, Issue 4, 1 August 2003, Pages 457–463, https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmg422

Peters, D. H, Garg A., Bloom G. Walker D.G, Brieger. W.R & Rahman. M.H (2014). Poverty and Access to Health Care in Developing Countries?: breaking down demand side barriers. vol.23 no.12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-311X2007001200003 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences1136(1):161 – 171 Available at https://www.researchgate.net/journal/1749-6632_Annals_of_the_New_York_Academy_of_Sciences. Barriers to Adequate Healthcare Paper.