Nurses Do to Support Their

¶ … Nurses Do to Support Their International Colleagues and Advocate for the Poor and Underserved of the World?

There are many factors that limit the ability for individuals in underdeveloped nations to obtain adequate health care. Poor health care is linked with poverty, and the lack of money and technology limit the number of doctors and the ability to acquire the newest equipment (Peters et al., 2008). In cases where up-to-date equipment is available, the living conditions are often unsanitary to the point of threatening the equipment. Additionally, health care requires substantial amounts of training and distribution costs. The developing world also lacks universal standards that would ensure a baseline standard for protocol.

Two challenges relating to providing health care in developing countries are inability to transport materials and unfamiliarity with the native landscape. It is difficult for nurses to provide health care when they do not understand the region and therefore have no familiarity with the environmental challenges facing local residents. Despite these difficulties, there are nevertheless solutions nurses can take to provide and advocate for health care on a global scale. The issue of transporting and paying for materials can only be solved through working without technology and implementing cures that do not involve technology Education is a crucial solution in this regard; it is crucial that nurses educate themselves and the natives of countries in the developing world as to effective health care services. For example, nurses should focus on health care solutions that are available to natives, rather than lamenting the lack of high-tech equipment; this is especially difficult because Western medicine promotes the technology is an indispensable component of health care. Natives should be educated with regard to areas such as sexual education, nutrition, and sanitation. Too often, the emphasis in the developing world has been on recovery rather than prevention, resulting in a cycle in which natives continue to get sick without knowing how to prevent illness. Moving forward, the emphasis must shift to prevention over recovery, as this will lead to fewer natives falling ill and requiring health care services that are unavailable. Even in areas where there is little to no technology, there are always health care initiatives that can be implemented in order to engender proper health.

The lack of familiarity with the landscape can be addressed through cultural immersion. Nurses need to integrate within the culture that they treat, familiarizing themselves with the common maladies and understanding the environmental factors that cause them. Nurses need to become part of the community, and if they show that they are committed to the local landscape, they will be more likely to engender commitment from the native population as well.