Healthcare System and Cultural Practices in Australia and Canada

This essay discusses the aspects of healthcare system and cultural practices in Australia and Canada, focusing on the role of nurses in providing culturally competent care. It explores the issues of cultural clash faced by nurses and provides recommendations for improving cultural competence in healthcare.

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Nursing Assignment
4/24/2019

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The essay brings about the discussion on the aspects of healthcare system and other
practices prevailing in the contemporary nursing care in Australia. The aspect of
contemporary nursing practice refers to the learning, which intent to enhance the health of the
individuals through an essential role of nurse. It determines to explain elements such as
essential communication skills, knowledge, and aspects of professional standards of
healthcare. For exploring and acquiring an understanding on these aspects, two different
ethnic groups/countries have taken, i.e. Australia and Canada. The health care practices or
services in this assignment will be illustrated in reference to these two nations. The
discussion will assess and demonstrate the health practices and cultural concepts in context to
Australia, and will identify any issues of culture clashes faced by the nurses in the health
facility. The elements of the family care, health literacy, and religious and spiritual
considerations will be illustrated. In the later part of the essay, recommendations will be
provided in context to the strategies appropriate for managing the issues arising due to
cultural differences within healthcare (Mas et al., 2015).
Australian healthcare system
The health-care system includes a mix of private and public service providers, and the
finance is offered with all departments of government, health guarantors, non-government
organisations. The universal health care system in Australia is known as Medicare, which
offers health services to all the permanent residents and citizens at free of cost. The private
health system in the country managed, owned privately such as private hospitals.
Western culture is prevailing in Australian environment primarily imitate from Britain
however also impacted by the Australian continent, i.e. the varied involvement of Aboriginal,
Torres Strait Islander and further Oceanian individuals. Culture of health can be defined as
the aspect as one in which good health and wellbeing is assured transversely demographic,
geographic and social segments. It aims to foster healthy and equitable communities, which
further guides in effective decision-making process, leading to the freedom of choice for a
healthy lifestyle (Bezin et al., 2017).
The country has a linguistically and culturally diverse residents, with many of their
residents born overseas and originating from Non-English communication nations. It has
been found that individuals from the culturally varied backgrounds, are less probable to attain
the mental health services, which is one of the major problem. Culture is an important factor
of health, and ill health, as the influence of culture on health is vast affecting the perception

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of illness, and beliefs about death and health promotion. Therefore, while diagnosing,
treatment, or management of the health issues or illness of their clients, health providers need
to be culturally sensitive (Clifford et al., 2015).
Health and cultural practices differ in their belief or perception towards the health,
illness, and treatment. For gaining an understanding of various health and cultural practices,
the assessment of two ethnic groups from the Australia and Canada will be done. Different
ethnic groups exist in Australia such as Indigenous Australians, Australians, Torres Strait
Islanders, Aboriginal Australians, and others.
To state about the culturally diverse groups, such as indigenous Australians it has
been analysed that the health status of indigenous Australians people remain below than the
non-indigenous counterparts in Australia. Many of the indigenous Australians suffer from the
mental health problems, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and usually die at a
younger age. Therefore, the use of tobacco and illicit substances has observed in the
Australians, which reduces their life expectancy, and affects overall health. The role of
families, and care of the support members is considered vital in the case of indigenous
Australians. This is because they believe certain factors affecting health of their children can
be controlled by the family care (Adams et al., 2017).
On the other hand, Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous people of the Torres
Strait Islanders, who belong to a part of Queensland Australia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander concept of health state that health does not mean physical wellbeing of the person,
but also the other factors. It means that the health is assessment in context to social,
emotional, and cultural aspects (Hughson et al., 2018). In the aspect of health services to the
people in Australia it has found that, various challenges are faced by health specialists with
providing care to the Aboriginal individuals. It occurs due to the distance in cultural aspects
amid the mainstream culture and Aboriginal culture, in context to the health belief structures.
The individuals, who belong to these ethnic groups, believe that the health care facilities must
ensure providing effective services to the people within country. In this context, the role of
Australian government is vital ensuring better access to the health-care services to these
individuals and improves their wellbeing (Chakawa & Hoglund, 2016).
Discussing the role of family and caring culture practices, for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander it has found that they depend on utilising western health care services. The
individuals in these groups do not rely upon the aspects of family-centred care and use of

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palliative care underpinning aiming to achieve end-of-life care (Kennard, 2016). The element
of health literateness determines the point to which people have the capability to achieve,
practice, and comprehend basic health info, and services to build out relevant decisions
relating to health. It has found through research that the factors, cultural, social, and family
influences shape beliefs, thereby influencing the health literacy. Another important element in
any health system is the linguistic competency (Cyril et al., 2017).
In context to different ethnic groups, Australians, have access to sufficient English-
language education, which will enhance their capacity to engage with effective health care
services. For an example, low literacy amongst individuals in varied cultural or social groups
will ultimately affect their health. Similarly, the factor of language or linguistic competency is
considered vital as it contributes to challenges in providing high-quality health care. As
health, professionals in different regions in Australia face problems such as conversational
differences, communication disorders that affect the quality of care (Shield et al., 2018).
The role of religion and spirituality is studied in relation to the aspect that it affects an
individual’s decision-making for their health and choices regarding their treatment.
Therefore, stating about the religious and spiritual considerations of the people in Australia,
amongst various ethnic groups differ in many of the ways. Like, the place of dying and death
is culturally and spiritually significant for many of the Aboriginal and Strait Islanders people.
People in Australia relate their health and illness with their cultural values and beliefs (Davies
et al., 2015).
To overcome the issues related to the language, affecting communication leading to
medication errors and others, several aspects can be taken into consideration. Bilingual staff
must be present within health care to help communicate with the people from culturally
diverse backgrounds. In Australia, health professionals now focus on the improvement of care
practices, through changing their prescription labels and other materials easy to be read by
patients. Therefore, the above discussion has stated well different aspects of the health and
cultural practices or beliefs within different ethnic groups in Australia (Shield et al., 2018).
The health care facilities in Canada are delivered through thirteen provincial and
territorial systems of widely funded health care, easily called as Medicare. The government
ensures the quality of care provided to the individuals through various standards in federal

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community. However, it does not join in everyday issues of the patients, as it remains
confidential between the health professional and patient. The basic values of fairness and
equity have highlighted in the resource, and responsibility sharing aspects in the Canada’s
healthcare structure. Thus, the country has a system of the public health observation that
evaluates communicable ailments, drinking water, safety of food and other associated threats
to health.
Discussing about the health and cultural practices, it has found that health system of
Canada is formed by the conventional principles of traditionally prevailing philosophies.
Several ethnic groups that exist in Canada include Indigenous peoples, and First nations and
others. Indigenous peoples or aboriginal Canadians are the ones living on the boundaries of
Canada. First nations focus on their health and culture and language acts as major social
determinant of their health. Some of the changes or improvements have made for the health
care facilities of the people belonging to the group of First nation.
The health systems of Canada, for the people in first nations consider the fact that one
must take care of their own health and wellness. Moreover, an people who follow the culture
of first nations group, states the importance of aspects of social, spiritual, and physical facets
of a healthy and balanced life. Therefore, these are two essential aspects need to be
considered in delivering health care facilities to the patients within country (Park et al.,
2015).
However, First Nations individuals usually have worse health outcomes than many
other Canadians. Several other social factors such as poor education, inferior housing, as well
as poverty and social exclusion, affect their status of health. The system has undergone many
changes and culturally, the health professionals in Canada are increasingly diverse and focus
on providing best services to their patients. Now, moving on to the discussion of the aspects
of family, and caring for the patients, First nations people stated the aspects of family
members, as they acts as major support to the patients. Thus, it has been analysed that the role
of family members is found vital to ensure attaining positive health-outcomes, and
eliminating any cultural or social issue affecting health (Drew, 2015).
On the other hand, for the health-professionals and clients who believe in following
the cultural Indigenous people ethnic group, they emphasize on receiving care from the

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public health system. This states the importance of public-funded health care system, as the
people or health professionals in the Canada less emphasize caring
To mention the aspects of health care facilities, and health literacy, it has been
analysed through research that the country is facing the issue of low levels of literacy due to
the Canada’s aging population. This has led to several issues causing poor management of
illness, and health of the patients or clients in the health facility (CDC, 2018).
The issues of culture clash faced by the nurses in Australia In this section, the essay
will explore the issue of cultural clash or problems experienced by the nurses within
healthcare in Australia. The issue of cultural clash is mostly observed within health care faced
by the nurses while dealing or providing care or treatment to the immigrant patients or
clients.
First requirement for the nurses is to assess the cultural competence of the health
organisation. Second, aspects, which play a vital role in improving the relationship between a
nurse and patient, is the communication. Therefore, they must ensure eradicating all the
communication and language related barriers amongst them. This will lead to effective
relationship, and the process of treatment would bring positive health outcomes of the patient
(Malti et al., 2016).
The aspect of understanding diversity or patient or clients from different culture is
important as, it helps in analysing the different needs of the patients, and helps them attain
their goals of care through patient-centred approach of care. Three elements or aspects are
important in achieving the goal of effective care provided to the patients from different
cultures, acceptance, awareness, and asking. These three aspects affect the process of care
and delivery of the required treatment to the patient. Therefore, it has been analysed that
culturally competent nursing care is important as it ensures delivering effective health
services, and assure attaining positive health outcomes.
Several interventions, or nursing strategies that would help or support clients from
different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, can be mentioned as improving communication,
educational strategies. Awareness of the different cultures, and their social and religious
beliefs about their health is most important strategies to lead positive health outcomes (Faruqi
et al., 2015).

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To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that the effective care to the
individuals is the major objective of any health care system. In any health institution or
facility, the satisfaction of patients and improvement in their health is one of the major factors
to judge the quality of care. The discussion has demonstrated well different aspects of care,
family care, health literacy and others in context to the Australian and Canadian health
system. Thus, it can be stated that patients and nurse must work as partners in the health care
to emphasize the aspects of quality care services. Hence, health professionals must consider
the role of cultural, social, and religious aspects of different groups across the nation. These
aspects act as major factors affecting their overall wellbeing, leading to development of
health.

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