Community Health Nursing Australia Case Study 2022

Running head: COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING
COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Question 1:
According to Hu et al., (2019), equity and access to health care is demarcated as the
accessibility of the health care services to each and every individual of the populations. Access to
the healthcare services whenever required by the individual. However, in the case of Australian
indigenous populations, they do not have appropriate access to the healthcare whenever required,
whenever required either due to poor economic background or due to unavailability of the
general practitioner in the healthcare setting. Equity to the healthcare care services means proper
distribution of the medical care facilities among the populations, but the access of medical care
facilities is far lower than that of the other populations.
Australian Indigenous people have higher mortality and morbidity rate as compared to
the non-indigenous population. According to Hu et al., (2019), the indigenous populations of the
Australia is said to live 12 years less than that of the other populations of Australia and along
with that also suffers from severe and pernicious disease at higher rates. One of the main cause
of the increased death rate is due to the lack of access to the healthcare services. Cardiovascular
disease is considered as one of the leading cause of death among the aboriginals. Apart from that
diabetes and chronic kidney disease also contributes for the death of the aboriginal populations.
According to Hu et al., (2019), the poor health outcomes of the aboriginal populations is
due to the reduced access of the health care practice. The Australian indigenous population have
far lower access of the healthcare as compared to the non-aboriginal populations. Aboriginal
population are more vulnerable to any physical or mental illness as compared to other individual.
It is due to their life style, cultural background and socio-economic factors. The poor health

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outcomes of the indigenous populations can be enhanced by providing proper healthcare
facilities, but is not accessible to them easily.
The Australian indigenous populations usually resides in the remote areas, where
availability of the medical condition is less. Hence, in order to get proper medical service they
have to travel to distant areas. However, due to lower socio-economic state they are not able to
afford expensive treatment and the disease remain untreated leads to death. Apart from the
indigenous individuals who live in rural areas, the indigenous populations of the urban areas also
disadvantaged due to the lack of appropriate medical services. According to the a survey
conducted by Davy et al., (2016), only 30% of the total aboriginal populations resides in the
urban areas and those individuals also do not get appropriate medical services either due to low
socioeconomic background or due to inequality.
The primary medical care facilities are only easily accessible to the non-aboriginal
populations due to which they have high life-expectancy rate and lower death rate.
According to Davy et al., (2016), there are several barriers identified that limits the
access of healthcare among the indigenous populations. Certain barriers identified that hinders
the equity and access to the health care facilities includes, discrimination, racism, cultural
background, language difference, and poor economic background. Low economic background is
one of the leading cause due to which they are not able to access medical care facilities. Illiteracy
and unemployment is the main cause behind their low socio economic background.
These barrier limits the access of the healthcare facilities among the aboriginal
populations, which results to low life expectancy rate and higher death rate among the
individuals and leads to disparity on the equity and the access to the healthcare services.

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Question 2:
Equity and the access to the healthcare services affects the health of the Australian
indigenous populations. It is essential for the health care authorities to propose strategies that can
be used to enhance the health outcome by improving the equity and the access of the healthcare
facilities among the indigenous populations (Davy et al., 2016). Different interventions that can
be used to enhance the equity and the access to the health care services which include, educating
the aboriginal populations and by avoiding discrimination.
1. Educating the aboriginal populations:
According to Paradies, (2016), indigenous health is termed as the physical, emotional,
cultural, and the physical well-being of the Australian indigenous populations. The Australian
indigenous populations often experience poorer health outcome which leads to death of the
indigenous populations at a very young age which leads to lower life expectancy rate.
From the study of the Sayers, Mackerras and Singh, (2017), it is evident that the
Australian indigenous populations are more prone to chronic disease such as, respiratory disease,
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease. Apart from the physical illness,
Australian indigenous populations are also more prone to the mental illness. According to Hoy,
Mott and Mc Donald, (2016), the prevalence rate of such chronic and mental illness among the
Australian indigenous populations is exponentially rising. Due to the unhygienic lifestyle such as
the poor sanitation which makes them more exposed due to the bacterial infection termed as
trachoma. Rheumatic heart disease is also frequently observed among the Australian indigenous
populations.

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The death rate of the Australian indigenous populations due to the cardiovascular disease
is around 30% of the total death. This is due to their exposure to the environmental and the
behavior risk factor as most of the indigenous populations live in the condition which do not
support quality health (Azzopardi et al., 2018). Along with that they are more exposed to
substance abuse such as, tobacco, alcohol, which are one of the primary risk factor of the chronic
illness such as, chronic kidney disease and the respiratory illness. Other risk factor which is
observed is in the case of the Australian indigenous populations is the lack of safe drinking
water, ineffective sewerage system, sanitation and healthy housing.
Most of the indigenous populations are not aware of the preventive strategies or the
treatment of any disease due to which the death rate among the Australian individuals rises day
by day. One of the most effective method to reduce the death rate and also increases the life-
expectancy rate is by educating the individuals about the prevention strategies and treatment of
the disease which is more prevalent in the case of aboriginal populations such as, cardiac issue,
diabetes and the chronic heart disease.
The life style such as the eating habits, physical activity involvement and hygiene of the
indigenous population is poor due to which they are more vulnerable to any disease than any
other populations (Healthdirect.gov.au, 2019). As they are more prone to chronic disease, it is
necessary for them to aware about the risk factor, prevention strategies and treatment of the
treatment of the chronic disease.
One of the most effective method to reduce the death rate and to increase the life
expectancy rate is by creating awareness them about the risk factor, preventive strategies and the
treatment of the disease (Browne et al., 2016). It can be done by the help of the awareness camps
and other campaigns that will educate the Australian indigenous populations about the disease,

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its consequences and along with that they should also be educated about the risk factor,
preventive strategies and the treatment of the disease.
2. Avoiding discrimination:
Among the social determinants that are said to have negative impact on the health of the
Australian indigenous populations, racism and discriminations also have a negative impact on
the health of the Australian indigenous populations (Humanrights.gov.au, 2019).
Discrimination creates a negative impact on the mental health of the Australian
indigenous populations especially. The Australian indigenous populations often experiences
discrimination in their daily life which leads to physical and mental illness such as, stress, high
blood pressure, depression, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and mortality.
They experiences discrimination everywhere that is in institutions, work place and
sometimes even in the health care setting by the nurse and the other healthcare staff which have
negative impact on the recovery of the patient giving rise to poor health outcomes.
According to the study conducted by Cerón et al., (2016), they face discrimination from
the early phase of their life that is childhood which creates negative impression on their mind and
with the passing time it tend to become stronger leads to mental and physical illness.
In the survey conducted by Shepherd et al., (2016), 45 % of the total indigenous
populations along with 14% if the children have reported to experience discrimination based on
their race and culture at some in their life. In case of children, who has been exposed to
discrimination often suffers from sleeping disorders and asthma (Yiallourou et al., 2018).

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Hence, it can be stated that the nurse who is taking care of the Australian indigenous
populations should avoid discrimination during the treatment of the Australian indigenous
populations. They should encounter them similarly like other patient or should provide more
attention to their needs and preferences due to their vulnerability. In taking care of the Australian
indigenous populations providing dignity and respect is must which if avoided might lead to poor
health outcomes. In addition, the Australian indigenous populations should also be
acknowledged about the coping strategies for discrimination.

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References:
Azzopardi, P. S., Sawyer, S. M., Carlin, J. B., Degenhardt, L., Brown, N., Brown, A. D., &
Patton, G. C. (2018). Health and wellbeing of Indigenous adolescents in Australia: a
systematic synthesis of population data. The Lancet, 391(10122), 766-782.
Browne, A. J., Varcoe, C., Lavoie, J., Smye, V., Wong, S. T., Krause, M., ... & Fridkin, A.
(2016). Enhancing health care equity with Indigenous populations: evidence-based
strategies from an ethnographic study. BMC Health Services Research, 16(1), 544.
Cerón, A., Ruano, A. L., Sánchez, S., Chew, A. S., Díaz, D., Hernández, A., & Flores, W.
(2016). Abuse and discrimination towards indigenous people in public health care
facilities: experiences from rural Guatemala. International journal for equity in health,
15(1), 77.
Davy, C., Harfield, S., McArthur, A., Munn, Z., & Brown, A. (2016). Access to primary health
care services for Indigenous peoples: A framework synthesis. International journal for
equity in health, 15(1), 163.
Healthdirect.gov.au. (2019). Indigenous health. Retrieved 27 July 2019, from
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/indigenous-health
Hoy, W. E., Mott, S. A., & Mc Donald, S. P. (2016). An expanded nationwide view of chronic
kidney disease in Aboriginal Australians. Nephrology, 21(11), 916-922.
Hu, J., Basit, T., Nelson, A., Crawford, E., & Turner, L. (2019). Does attending Work It Out–a
chronic disease self-management program–affect the use of other health services by
urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with or at risk of chronic disease? A

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comparison between program participants and non-participants. Australian journal of
primary health.
Humanrights.gov.au. (2019). Social determinants and the health of Indigenous peoples in
Australia – a human rights based approach | Australian Human Rights Commission.
Retrieved 27 July 2019, from
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/news/speeches/social-determinants-and-health-
indigenous-peoples-australia-human-rights-based
Paradies, Y. (2016). Colonisation, racism and indigenous health. Journal of Population
Research, 33(1), 83-96.
Sayers, S. M., Mackerras, D., & Singh, G. R. (2017). Cohort profile: the Australian aboriginal
birth cohort (ABC) study. International journal of epidemiology, 46(5), 1383-1383f.
Shepherd, C. C., Li, J., Cooper, M. N., Hopkins, K. D., & Farrant, B. M. (2017). The impact of
racial discrimination on the health of Australian Indigenous children aged 5–10 years:
analysis of national longitudinal data. International journal for equity in health, 16(1),
116.
Yiallourou, S. R., Maguire, G. P., Eades, S., Hamilton, G. S., Quach, J., & Carrington, M. J.
(2018). Sleep influences on cardio-metabolic health in Indigenous populations. Sleep
medicine.