Access to Quality Healthcare in Rural Areas: A Case Study of Namibia

This article discusses the challenges faced by rural residents in accessing quality healthcare in Namibia. It also proposes strategies for implementing health programs to mitigate illnesses, especially malaria, in community and healthcare settings.

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Scenario 1
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Scenario 1
Access to quality healthcare is crucial in ensuring people have good health. However,
rural residents often encounter numerous access barriers. For instance, in Namibia, the people in
rural areas are unable to access healthcare facilities due to transportation issues. Access to
appropriate health care is vital due to various reasons. First, it makes sure that people have good
mental, social and physical health status. It also ensures there is disease prevention, increased life
expectancy and preventable deaths. Access to suitable health care is also imperative for detection
and subsequent treatment of various illnesses.
As an educator, it will be vital to implement a health program to mitigate illnesses
especially malaria that is prevalent in Namibian children. In healthcare settings, parents or
guardians ought to be provided with the appropriate education concerning the symptoms of
various diseases (Wilson et al, 2009). For example, in the case of malaria parents should be
enlightened to take note of various symptoms in children. These include a headache, diarrhea,
fever, joint and muscle aches, nausea, extreme weakness and vomiting. In community settings,
health programs to prevent illnesses will involve educating people on how to provide first aid to
each sickness. For instance, parents should provide their children with turmeric, datura, alum or
ginger when they observe symptoms of malaria. They should then strive to take their children to
health facilities despite the transportation challenges.
Implementation of the health programs will be different in community and healthcare
settings. In healthcare settings, people may only be availed when they are sick therefore pay
more attention to the education programs. Subsequently, this will ensure complete transferability
of all important information. On the contrary, in community settings implementation of the
health education programs might not be effective (Bodenheimer and Pham, 2010). There might

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be reduced flexibility because health experts cannot reach all people. People still may be unable
to attend the community setting health programs due to transportation issues, therefore, leading
to ineffective implementation. Factors like the number of sick people, prevalence of a disease
and health experts available will determine the choice of the setting.
To ensure health programs achieve intended results, appropriate strategies must be well
incorporated in the implementation. In a healthcare setting, the applicable strategy will be to
ensure that all health programs are similar to avoid providing different information
(Bodenheimer and Pham, 2010). In community settings, health professionals must ensure that
there is an adequate participation of people. It is significant in ensuring that people clearly
comprehend the importance of having good health.

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References
Bodenheimer, T., & Pham, H. H. (2010). Primary care: current problems and proposed
solutions. Health Affairs, 29(5), 799-805.
Wilson, N., Couper, I., De Vries, E., Reid, S., Fish, T., & Marais, B. (2009). Inequitable
distribution of healthcare professionals to rural and remote areas. Rural Remote
Health, 9, 1060.