Aboriginal Health Care Needs and Interaction with Health Care System

Health Care Needs and Interaction with Health Care System
Introduction
Aboriginal persons from the rural and secluded expanses of South Australia together with the Northern Territory are usually forced to travel to hospitals situated in the city in order to gain access to inpatient and outpatient healthcare services in addition to receiving expert care, examinations and investigations that are inaccessible in their individual geographic locations. In addition, their journeys and experiences may be challenging owing to lack of financial support as well as language barrier with English not being their first language (Kelly et al., 2015). Extensive comprehension of the Aboriginal patient experience is a significant element of enhancing the delivery of health care services and welfare for the Aboriginal people. The purpose of this project is to analyze and delineate the experiences of an Aboriginal individual together with their journey as a patient in receiving health care.
Describe the rationale for understanding the Aboriginal patient journey in view of Aboriginal Health
There is a great rationale for comprehending the Aboriginal patient journey taking into consideration Aboriginal Health. This is for the reason that several Aboriginal individuals, particularly those residing in far-flung and distant regions, are necessitated to travel massive distances to hospitals for medical assistance, more often than not with severe medical conditions. Notably, language problems, inefficient collaboration between agencies, cultural confusions, emotional and physical strain, travel and financial issues, all cause this to be a prospectively sensitively strenuous, unsafe and inefficacious practice with consequences for not only the patient but also the health system. Therefore, it is important to understand the patient journey of Aboriginal persons for the reason that the effect of social determinants of health can be restricted through efficacious primary health care. Furthermore, through such comprehension it becomes possible to provide necessary services including health prevention, instantaneous response to severe sicknesses, and health safety through patient screening, initial intervention and treatment. This makes it possible to guarantee optimum health and welfare for the whole population (Folio, 2017).
Describe the findings from Patient Journey Mapping activity from the social and diagnostic yarn
Dimension of health
Social & emotional wellbeing
 The patient is a 72 year old Aboriginal female living alone. However, she has a daughter that resides nearby. The patient has two sister, but one passed one due to lung cancer and the other one died due to a heart attack a few years ago.
Family & Community commitments
 Patient has been to different social activities 4 days a week, including local community center and aboriginal community center.
Personal, spiritual & cultural considerations
Patient has particular spiritual and culture connection with family such as wearing sister’s cardigan and scarf and keeping their memory.
Physical & biological
 Patient has been to the General practitioner when she does not feel well. General practitioner offered health check and health screen to patient when deemed necessary.
Patient health disease: hypertension, type 2 diabetes, arthritis.
Factors impacting on experience
Type of health service
 hypertension, type 2 diabetes, arthritis
Location
Getting to health service
 The patient has recently been to hospital on February this year. She felt sick and presented signs of short of breath fever and diarrhea.
Impact of illness or injury
 General practitioner advised the patient go to the hospital for future treatment. The patient had been to the hospital with family but due to unknown reasons they sent her back on same day. However, the following day, the patient was taken to hospital with ambulance and stayed in hospital for 5 days
Language & communication
 Patient experiences difficulty in language an communication
Financial resources
 The patient has good family support and no finance barriers to the doctor or hospital
Cultural safety
 The patient experience in the hospital was not impacted by the culture factor. The treatment received by the patient did not seem or feel to be any different in comparison to the other Aussie patients. Furthermore, when the patient was discharged from hospital, the nurse offered social workers together with physiotherapist in order to aid with the recovery. In general, the patient felt respected and well taken care of in the hospital.
Other factors
 Patient lack of awareness about her health and may need education support during the interview. Patient suggest as an aboriginal people admitted to hospital, they wish hospital can offer some special service for them such as language and culture support.
Positive factors
 The patient had both an interesting and good experience in the hospital. For instance, the nurse delivering care to her made use of the mat to ensure that she did not fall and also incessantly monitored their movement. The experience of the patient is that the health staff was in fact worried and concerned for her health and wellbeing. Furthermore, the patient met an Aboriginal health support worker within the hospital who was of great assistance and support to her in terms of culture and language.
Negative factors
 The patient felt that the nurse offered less communication to her and less educational support for explaining her disease. In addition, the nurse or doctor failed to recall when the patient was discharged from the hospital.
The patient was forced to take pain medication, specifically panadol, three times a day in order to treat her knee as well as make use of the blood pressure monitor for observing her high blood pressure.
Describe the Role of RN with the health care team in meeting the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person’s health needs
The registered nurse plays a key role within the health care team in meeting the health needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Nurses play the role of gaining knowledge of the past background of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals so as to establish and advance some comprehension of how such past experiences impact the present and their lives. To begin with, considering the RN does not work individual, he or she has the role of developing and promoting constructive professional working associations with the members of the healthcare team. Through such collaboration, it becomes possible to provide ideal health care services to Aboriginal persons. At the same time, owing to cultural and language barriers, the registered nurse also plays the role of explaining to the patient their health status, the medical processes necessary, and also educating them on what is required in terms of health prevention. Furthermore, the RN has the role of rendering health care to patients that is informed and backed by research evidence. In the case of Aboriginal persons, such health care is informed by understanding their historical experiences and also their social determinants (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2016).
Analyze the learning activity and describe how it will inform your role as a culturally capable Registered Nurse (Use a reflective approach)
This learning activity plays a significant role in improving my competence and more importantly informs my role as a capable registered nurse. Imperatively, this learning activity is important in comprehending the history and culture and the role that they lay in shaping the health and welfare of Aboriginal individuals. This is for the reason that in order to enhance and augment their health, it is important for me as a nurse of have an exhaustive and in-depth understanding of both respect and cultural safety. In addition, I am able to be a registered nurse who can identify with Aboriginal individuals. I consider it to be necessary for Aboriginal individuals to have the similar accessibility and provision of healthcare as any other person in the nation. In accordance to McInman (2000), registered nurses together with health care professionals have the ability to access and comprehend the lived experiences of Aboriginal persons within a health care emergency setting. This activity increases my extent of reflection concerning the impact of not only my behavior as a nurse but also that of the system on others. As a nurse, this has enabled me to increase my level of awareness regarding the reasons why Aboriginal people access emergency services. In addition, as a nurse, it is imperative for me to apply and utilize my knowledge of the social determinants of health to alleviate susceptible people’s experiences such as those of Aboriginal people with respect to their experiences in accessing healthcare.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Aboriginal persons more often than not experience below par health care services as compared to other people across the nation. As a result, it is imperative for registered nurses to understand the social determinants of such persons in order to meet their health care needs and interaction with the health care system. Being aware of their historical experiences and understanding the cultural restrictions makes it possible for the nurses to render more ideal and effective healthcare services. For instance, in the case of the patient analyzed in this paper, it is recommended that the nurses should provide education support in order for the patient to haveincreased awareness about her health. In addition, there is the recommendation for the provision of special services such as culture and language support to improve patient experiences.





References
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2016). Australia’s Health. Australian Government.
Folio. (2017). Exploring the social determinants of health. Western Nurse.
Kelly, J., Dwyer, J., Pekarsky, B., Mackean, T., Willis, E., Battersby, M., & Glover, J. (2015). Managing two worlds together. StageS: Improving Aboriginal Patient Journeys-Workbook (Version 1). Melbourne: The Lowitja Institute.
McInman, A. D. (2000). What Aboriginal people think about their access to health care. Report submitted to the Centre for Health Outcomes and Innovations Research, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown Campus. Sydney: McInman Research Centre.