The National Strategic Framework for Chronic Conditions

This essay reviews the National Strategic Framework for Chronic Conditions and focuses on objective two: providing efficient and effective care for people with chronic conditions. It discusses the role of nursing professionals in improving the quality of life for individuals with chronic conditions.

Running head: ESSAY
The National Strategic Framework for Chronic Conditions
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Chronic disease conditions are theprincipal reasons underlying the development of
illness, disability and death among the Australian population. Tackling the chronic healthcare
conditions and their associated reasonsare regarded as one of the significant barrier
experienced by the Australian healthcare system. The National Strategic Framework for the
Chronic Condition) is an overarching policy for chronic condition. It sets out the way for
combating disease condition and its associated outcomes to achieve principal vision, "All
Australians live healthier lives through effective prevention and management of chronic
condition" (Australian Health Minister s’ Advisory Council, 2017). The purpose of this essay
is to review the National Strategic Framework for Chronic Condition based on its three
objectives. This will be followed by discussion of one of the three objectives of the
framework. In this essay, the main focus will be objective two. The analysis of the objective
2 in improving Australian healthcare approach and prevention of the chronic illness will be
followed by critically analysis on the role of the nursing professionals to achieve two
strategic priority areas of objective two.
Discussion
The objective one of The National Strategic Framework for the Chronic Conditions
focuses on the area of prevention of disease for making healthier Australia. Prevention is the
principal factor behind improving the health of the Australian population. Prevention includes
reduction of the healthcare cost and ensuring sustainable healthcare system. Australian
Burden of disease Study: impact and causes of illness and death in Australia 2011 has
identified that nearly one-third of disease burden in Australia during the year 2011 can be
prevented by reducing the exposure of the modifiable risk factors like unhealthy lifestyle
habits. The burden of diseases among the population residing in the remote areas can be

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reduced by increasing the healthcare access and by increasing the healthcare literacy. Under
objective 1, the priority areas that are of main focus by the nursing professionals include
promotion and health and reduction of risk, partnership among the healthcare professionals,
management of the critical life stages and timely yet appropriate detection and
implementation of the proper interventions (Australian Health Minister s’ Advisory Council,
2017).Feldman et al. (2015) stated that prevention of the modifiable risk factors like smoking
and management of weight under community based healthcare awareness program helped in
reducing the chances of developing childhood asthma. Similarly, Al-Zalabani et al. (2016)
stated that modification of the lifestyle factors are important to reduce the disease
development. The occupational exposure can significantly reduce the burden of bladder
cancer among the community dwelling adults.
The second goal of the Framework focuses on delivering efficient yet effective and
appropriate care. This is done for supporting people with the chronic healthcare condition. It
helps to optimise overall quality of life. The priority of this objective include active
engagement, continuity of care, and increase in access towards the healthcare services
followed by information sharing and giving other support system (Australian Health Minister
s’ Advisor y Council, 2017). Batterhamet al. (2016) are of the opinion that the increase in
access of the health-care system will help in reducing the prevailing health inequalities
prevalent among the indigenous and non-indigenous population of Australia. Graffigna and
Barello (2015) stated that increasing the patient’s participation in the care plan help to
increase the requirement for generation of person-centered approach and at the same time
helps to increase the level of therapy adherence.
The third goal of the Framework includes improving the health access of the
indigenous population of Australia like the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islanders. The
success of this objective will depend on the reducing of the risk of developing chronic

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diseases among the indigenous population of Australia, reduction in the rate of multi-
morbidities and increasing the life expectancy. The focus of this objective includes proving
culturally safe and proper healthcare services. Associated aims of this objective includes:
increasing the accessible healthcare services that are effective, affordable and is of high
quality while improving flexibility of the healthcare service (Australian Health Minister s’
Advisor y Council, 2017).McCalman, Jongen and Bainbridge (2017)stated to reduce the high
rate of mortality and morbidity among the indigenous population, a comprehensive healthcare
approach must be undertaken. Here a special focus on the cultural competitiveness. The
strategic priority area includes reducing the health disparity among the Australian indigenous
population, promotion of the action and empowerment among the Australian indigenous
population. Other strategic planning areas for objective one include promotion of the
community level empowerment and targeted improvement of the action at the local level for
reducing of the risk of developing chronic healthcare conditions (Australian Health Minister
s’ Advisor y Council, 2017). According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
(AIHW) (2019), 3% of the Australian population is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and
this include 760,000 of the people. There exists 39% of the gap between the health of the
indigenous population and non-indigenous population of Australia and this gap mainly exists
for the poor social determinants of health. However, application of the culturally competent
healthcare interventions under the active cooperation of the culturally competent nursing
professionals helped to reduce this health inequality gap from 52% in the year 2002 to 2004
to 42% in 214-2015. The application of The National Strategic Framework for the Chronic
Conditions has helped to reduce the rate of mortality and morbidity among the indigenous
population by 15%.
Objective 2: Provide efficient, effective and appropriate care to support people with
chronic conditions to optimise quality of life

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People with chronic conditions have several multi-morbidities along with varying
level of complexities. For example, people suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus with
uncontrolled blood glucose level also have severe to moderate cardiovascular disease, renal
disease and neuropathy (Chrvala, Sherr&Lipman, 2016). Increases access of the healthcare
service along with improved skills of disease self-management helps in reducing the severity
of disease. For example, increase in the self-management skills of diabetes like proper
management of diet and body weight helps in reducing the blood glucose level and the
associated disease co-morbidities (Chrvala, Sherr&Lipman, 2016). The principle goal of this
objective is to address the risk factors behind disease development and delivering proper
nursing support toidentify early signs and symptoms of disease along with implementation of
the early interventions. The objective also focuses on improving disease management
strategies (Australian Health Minister s’ Advisory Council, 2017).
The two principle gaols that help in improving the quality of life of the individual
suffering from chronic disease include promotion of the active patient engagement(2.1) and
increase in the level of health information sharing (2.2). Active patient engagement of the
patients and their caregivers in the care plan for the chronic disease management will help to
increase the requirement of the informed decision-making. Increase in the information
sharing with the patient helps to increase the requirement for the service delivery in
healthcare while improving the overall health outcomes (Australian Health Ministers’
Advisory Council, 2017).
Active patient engagement (2.1) and nurse’s role
Active engagement dealswith person-centred care approach while empowering the
patients to play an informed role as per their abilities and interests. People with chronic health
conditions must not manage their health on their own. They are not expected to play a passive

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role in their healthcare service delivery. It is the duty of the nursing professionals to increase
the patient engagement in the care process while implementing person-centred care approach
(Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council, 2017). Gluyas (2015) stated that to
implement person-centred care approach, it is duty of the nursing professionals to execute
effective communication skills with the patient to facilitate the formation of the therapeutic
relationships with the patient. Development of the therapeutic relationships with the patients
help in understanding of the clinical priority and thus increasing the requirement for
designing patient centred care plan. Foronda, MacWilliams and McArthur (2016) further
stated that use of the effective communication skills under the nursing practice helps to
improve the level of patient safety and overall outcome of patient care in improving the level
of patients’ participation in the care plan. The effective communication skills include both
verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Under the non-verbal communication skills,
active listening, maintenance of proper eye contacts and positive body language holds prime
importance. By the use of the verbal communication skills, the improvement of the patients’
knowledge about disease progression is promoted. Timely communicating the patients’
health status with the patient himself helps in improving their knowledge about their current
condition, selection of the therapy of preference and setting individual quality of life goals
(Foronda, MacWilliams& McArthur, 2016).
Digital technology and tele-health also plays an important role in enabling healthcare
service users to have control over their healthcare therapy planning and supporting the
development of the person-centered care approach and self-management of disease
(Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council, 2017). To increase the acceptance of tele-
health, community nurses play an important role. The Community healthcare nurses play
increases awareness about the usage and the importance of tele-health in healthcare practice.
This is mainly done through group-based awareness program where the service users are

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educated about the importance of tele-health and how to apply it effectively to reduce the
chances of unwanted hospital admission (Taylor, et al., 2015).
Information sharing (2.4) and role of nursing professionals
Sharing quality and accessible health-information about the performance of the health
system and the health of the Australian healthcare service users help in improving health
status while reducing the wastage of the duplicate efforts and development of the evidence-
based practice guidelines. Proper access to quality information helps to generate awareness
about the prevention and effective management of the chronic health condition and enables
the identification of the target population based on health-priority. Sharing of the information
occurs through linkage and consistent reliable use of de-identified data. Oster (2018) stated
that diabetes is a chronic health condition and obesity and unhealthy lifestyle are the principal
reasons behind the increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes. However, majority of the adult’s
population who are suffering from this lifestyle disease are reluctant in taking active initiates
to decelerate disease progression my working on the modifiable factors of disease
development. In such cases, sharing of the heath information and education about of the
lifestyle changes with small but serious initiatives can help to bring a behavioural change and
thus helping to reduce the vulnerability of disease development. To promotion behavioural
change through information sharing, it is the duty of the nurses to sharing proper health-based
information among the patients or the vulnerable group of population. Online educational
resources or information sharing platforms is found to be helpful in promoting disease
awareness and reduction in disease prevalence(Guan et al., 2018). The sharing of the health-
related information to generate awareness about the chronic disease management can also be
done under the community based healthcare settings. Here the nursing professionals make
use of power-point presentations, poster presentations and use of interactive sessions to
promote education and information sharing (De Wit et al., 2018).

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Access to health care related information in timely manner helps the healthcare
researchers to generate new information related to the epidemiology of the chronic health
conditions and thus improving the quality of care through innovative care practice.
Goldzweiget al. (2015)are of the opinion that remote access of the health-information also
increases the requirement for designing evidence-based healthcare practice and thereby
helping to prevent disease development. Online access of the information by the diverse
group of healthcare professionals is made possible under the application of the electronic
health records (EHRs). It is the duty of the nursing professionals to conduct proper
documentation of the patient’s records. However, while making documentation of the
patients’ information the nursing professionals must follow the ethical guidelines of the
privacy and confidentiality of the patients’ health related information to secure bio-ethics.
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that for the effective-
management of the chronic health condition, nursing professionals play an important role.
The role of the nurse deals with development of the patient-centred care and increasing the
awareness among the patients. This is achieved by executing effective communication skills
among the patients. Both verbal and non-verbal communication skills are important. For
increasing the requirement of the evidence-based practice and sharing of the information
electronic health records and the role of the nurses play an important role.

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