Impact of National Health Policies on Older People with Chronic Diseases

Running Head: NURSING POLICIES
HEALTH POLICIES AND ISSUES
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Unit code and title:
Professional Issues
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Due date: 14/08/2019
Word count: 1757

1NURSING POLICIES
Introduction
This essay is going to discuss about the various national policies related to the
healthcare services particularly the policies that are associated with the chronic diseases
(Rechel et al., 2013). These policies will affect the healthcare care system as well as the
nursing practice in Australia. As the nurses contribute to decision making and planning for
the effective treatment of the nurses. Thus, the essay will link the health policies for the older
people that impact them at all levels. The nurses also play a major role in influencing the
healthcare system that impact the quality of life for the patients (Department of Health,
2019). These policies are important for the proper structuring and standardization of the
healthcare system as they help the employees to understand their responsibilities and roles in
the organization. However, all these policies in this area have a negative impact on the older
people who are suffering from chronic diseases.Thus, the essay links the national healthcare
policies with nursing and also discusses their impact on nursing. According to Prince et al.,
2015 here are certain framework that will be affecting those policies and guidelines.
Discussion
National Health Policy
The National Health Policy in Australia that deals with the health policy for older
people suffering from chronic diseases is impacted by the state and federal policies as they
affect the normal healthcare system (Department of Health, 2019). This has helped the
citizens to achieve a greater rate of health efficacy as they help to meet the challenge of
chronic diseases especially among the older people. These policies help to reduce the
fragmentation of the health system in order to improve the quality of patient-care in the aged
person (Department of Health, 2019). The splitting of the healthcare polices between the
federal and the state regarding the responsibilities and the funding makes it a difficult option

2NURSING POLICIES
for all the patients to navigate through the healthcare options. The healthcare system can be
broadly classified as the one in which all the public hospitals are being funded by the federal
government (Verhaegh et al., 2014). The private hospitals are always dependent on the state
government for the proper licensing as well as for the private health insurance schemes. This
makes it challenging for the older people suffering from chronic diseases as they are not able
to connect through the integrated pathways as the system is very much integrated and
complex. This also requires coordinated access to all the services that are being provided to
all the people across the community care center, primary care center and in the acute care
setting (Islam et al., 2014).
According to Chawla et al., (2014) who conducted a research study to find out that the
older people are affected by the chronic conditions that contain a broad range of chronic and
complex healthcare conditions including trauma, disability, mental illness and genetic
disorders. There are a number of chronic health conditions that occur throughout the life
cycle and become more prevalent in the older age of the person. This can even affect the
quality of life and also creates disabilities and limitations. Chronic conditions can range from
a number of minor conditions to the restrictive diseases and also to the life-threatening
diseases (Rechel et al., 2013). Research has shown that these diseases are more prevalent
among the older adults and is also the most common cause for death in Australia. Among this
population group the two most common chronic condition are the cardiovascular disorders
and diabetes (Syed et al., 2014). Chronic conditions often lead to the premature mortality and
morbidity among the aged persons. This is also related to the poor life quality as the
prevalence or existence of the chronic diseases increases with age (Evans & Stoddart, 2017;
Department of Health, 2019).
Thus, the policies should focus on the various risk factors that often increases the rate
of occurrence of that disease in the person. These factors include the behavioral risk factors,