Roles and Functions of Australian Nurses in Humanitarian Situations Outside Australia

This essay discusses the roles and functions of Australian nurses in humanitarian situations outside of Australia. It also covers the benefits and challenges faced by nurses in refugee camps. The nurses aim to provide quality healthcare services to refugees and help them overcome health problems. However, they face challenges such as cultural differences, communication gaps, and social conditions. The benefits include professional support, training, and additional financial support. Desklib provides access to solved assignments, essays, and dissertations on this topic.

Running Head: NURSING 0
NURSES IN AUSTRALIA

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Roles and Functions of Australian Nurses
In this essay, the analysis will be based on the evaluation upon the roles and the
functions of the nurses working in a humanitarian situation outside of Australia. Also, the
discussion will be interpreted regarding the possible benefits and challenges faced by the
nurses in those particular surroundings. The Australian nurses due to globalization have got
several opportunities by the government of Australia to work and function all around the
world. These nurses are working for the long and short duration by their own motivation and
with the aim of developing the skills. It is increasing more for the reason of humanitarian and
the development sectors which are dealing withdifferent non-governmental organizations that
are exercising all around the world which is also termed as NGOs (Kingma, 2012). In
accordance with the faith-based or the political movements, the nurses practice their
profession in a very self-sufficient or in a non-religious manner.
The nurses of Australia have implemented various strategies and definite role in
distributing health care to all the refugee people of Syria. Since the past three decades, the
role the nurses have not been determined and has notably changed. It has resulted in such
drastic change because of the impact of education, multiskilling and,control in relation to
establish greater efficiency and productivity in this field (Walter, Elizabeth, Curtis, & Kate,
2015).
The roles and functioning of the Australian nurses are basically working to achieve
the national health goals and to overcome the negative effects suffered by the refugee people.
They have also aimed to eradicate the possible adverse actions and executing better health
approaches for these individuals, members and their communities (Kooienga & Carryer,
2015). The nurses empower the refugee families, individuals and their communities to
progress in their aspect of well-being and health. It also promotes and organizesthe special

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team of the mainstream and the referral such as the health-related problems of dental, the
school nursing program, the best nutritionists, and dealing with trauma and torture
counselling, etc.
The nurses of Australia are being supportive of the refugees of Syria while aiding
them with careand supportin aspect to their basic humanitarian needs which have been
diminished. They are experiencing distressing circumstances such as war and armed
conflicts. In relevance to the refugees that have affected by major health-related problems
have been identified amongst the people and the nurses are putting emphasis on recovering
such types of problems like the diseases causing infection, lack of poor nutrition, the dental
related problems and other physical problems which are hampering their lives on a broad
scale (Damousi, 2019).
The present situation of Syria had ruined the entire country by attacking many people
and their basic lives on a large scale. It also led to the restraining of the harmonious protests
in the country. As before the war, Syria was considered the country which was low and
backward in terms of the income but with the contemporary standard of living as compared
with the other countries. But due to the severe war that resulted in the devastation,
commercial disintegration and the reduction in the infrastructure. So, there was an immediate
action towards humanitarian assistance.
This organization known as the UN Refugee Agency Australia for UNHCR aims
towards the refugees along with the nurses of Australia by supporting and rescuing the lives
of the individuals that were harshly distressed by the conflict of war. They provided with the
requirement aid involving the food, healthcare, education and, problems related to sanitation.
These organizations are moving forward towards improving the risky conditions and the
attacks with medical help.

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Furthermore, in the context of the Syrian conflict that resulted in the humanitarian
critical turning pointwhich killed almost 190,000 individuals (Sevinc, 2017). The Australian
government and the nurses the best level of funding in contrast with the other countries. The
funding comprised of almost $130.81 million of humanitarian assistance which was also
coordinated with the agencies of UN, the help from its NGOs in the proper manner like
giving shelter, medical assistance, and food, along with long term aid of health care and
education (Perry, Gallagher, & Duffield, 2015).
The Australian Council for International Development is an organization thathas
involved the nurses to exercise their duties in Syria which was hit and ruined by the civil war.
Its consequences have impacted violently on the people living in Syria from seven years
prevailing amongst the forces of government, rebel groups relating to anti-government, and
lastly the terrorist organizations. Due to the conflict of such war, the non-militarypopulation
and its infrastructure destroyed the basic facilities for them such as medical assistance,
schools, human rights, etc. The nurses of Australia aided them with all the benefits regarding
medical, to give social support and provided them with clothes, food and other cash donations
(Galvez-Rodriguez & Haro-de-Rosario, 2019). They also resolved their mental and physical
issues on quick basis. So, the emphasis is to respond all the individuals or the victim along
with the UN agencies, international humanitarian organizations and the NGOs of Australia to
come up and cooperate with such refugees.
The Australian Nurses have managed to connect with their beliefs and the major
effects of the families in relation to their health and the role in upholding the health of the
family (Yayan, Duken, & Ozdemir, 2019). They are assisting in aspect to the physical,
psychological, and spiritual distress that has caused in the forced migration and led to armed
conflict, violence, poverty and from the disaster. The well-being of the refugees of Syria is
the significant factor which is dealt with Australian nurses and the organization to raise them

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from the drawback that discouraged their lives. The role of the registered nurses in the project
would be to manage the triage of nursing in collaboration with the colleagues and doctors. As
Syria is a war-torn country, the number of injured people kept increasing so it is the role of
Australian nurses to take care of the injured patients diligently and to effectively manage the
medical emergencies. To initiate the disciplined medical practice, it is their responsibility to
correctly compile and maintain the clinical files, patients’ records and nursing notes. The
protocols for nursing are made to initiate the ethical practice in the refugee camps so it is the
role of the Australian nurses to apply the nursing protocols sincerely specially in the area of
hygiene. The other important roles of nurses include effective management of orders of
pharmacy and consumables and the helping doctors to carry out clinical research and keeping
of records.
Benefits and Challenges Faced by Nurses at the Refugee Camps
A Refugee is termed as any person who is not able to return to their own country or
their birth-place due to fear of religion, race, and nationality, etc. In 2015 there were 21.3
million individuals across the globe and most of them were belonging to Syria. The
population of the refugees has been determined with poor health and their health reflects the
situation of their community and people of the place from where they belong (Murray, Elmer,
& Elkhair, 2018).
They are completely dependent on the aid and services of foreign countries so this is
the reason why they migrated from that particular place. The most common problems or
health issues which are observed in them are Malaria, Measles, Acute respiratory infection,
diarrheal diseases, and malnutrition, other fatal infectious diseases. The Sex transmitted
infection can also be observed in the refugees in huge numbers (Jupp, 2001).

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Nurses who are providing services outside Australia for the support and care of the
refugees are facing many forms of challenges during their working time. Although they are
assigned by the government sometimes they have to face some challenges with the benefits.
The challenges and the benefits which are faced by the nurses of Australia are categorized in
a different manner. The challenges faced by the nurses such as the lack of communication
gap, cultural understanding, trust, time, health and social conditions. When the nurses have to
provide their services to the other nation i.e. outside of Australia the major challenge comes
across is to trust the refugees easily but never trust upon the support system of the other
country (Barnes & Rowe, 2013).
They oppose or they refuse to take the service provided by them, sometimes it is very
critical to handle them and make them understand regarding the benefits and the relief system
of the refugee camps. Refugees sometimes are filled with rage and frustration due to which
nurses may get injuries. The other issue which rises is the communication gap or difference.
Most of the time it is observed that cases getcritical at refugees camp due to improper
communication; they hardly understand the language of the nurses serving in the camps
(Ferris & Donato, 2019).
Proper communicationsare conducted or completed properly can reduce 50% efforts
because when the nurses will not able to understand the problem of refugees and they will not
be able to provide them with proper treatment. Cultural understanding is another challenging
factor that is faced by the nurse during the nursing camp. It is found that most of the refugees
are from Syria so; the people of these countries have totally different values and cultural
thinking. They do not believe in the people of the different communities, religions or
following different traditions apart from that the colour or race is another factor due to which
sometimes these people avoid or not accept the services from Australian nurses.

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According to them, such services are not designed for women and to take their service
then they will become people with sin (Ng Chok & Wilkes, 2018). In many refugees camp
due to misunderstanding in the culture people get died due to lack of the treatment. One of
the most common challenges are related to the health and social condition, sometimes due to
the environmental condition may create a problem for the nurses and they may get infected
with the diseases apart from them due to lack of proper resources of safety these nurses may
also infect with the diseases. Also, the social conditions of these camps are not good
sometimes these nurses have to face sexual harassment and other mental problems
(Stevenson & Baker, 2018).
In the refugee camp, the safety of the individual of the nurses is the major challenge.
The reason behind the failure of some refugee camps is because of political technology and
humanitarian. In many countries where the political conditions are somehow complex, they
do not support the camp and the nurses due to which the resource do not reach appropriately
in proper quantity and other help.
With the Disadvantage of any program, there are many advantages; these positive
factors motivate the nurses to work with proper dedication. The benefits which are observed
in refugee camps are that these nurses get the complete professional support from the higher
designated officer who has deep knowledge about the issues of health care. The experts
present in the camp help them with their experience and knowledge. To getting knowledge
from experts and helping the nurses who are providing their services at a refugee camp in
improving their skills and ability (Koutoukidis, Stainton, & Hughson, 2016). The nurses get
training under the surgeons and experts, such trainings have vast knowledge about the health
care system and about the diseases.

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The nurses who are selected for the refugee camps who work in complete guidance so
that there are no chances of any other issue or in any case if there is any person with the
critical conditions the experts explain them the methods to resolve and help the individuals.
The nurses who are working for the refugee camp they receive additional support from the
financial perspective as well. They get the additional payout for their services and also they
are taking care relating to the accommodation, food, etc at the camp. The requirements for
nurses are that the nurses should have the educational qualification from the reputed
university and college. They should have at least two years of experiences in their field. The
competency standards for the nurses include that they should be competent enough to manage
the emergency crises. They should have the good skills to develop the good therapeutic
relationships with the patients at refugee camps. They should be disciplined enough to follow
the registered nurses professional standards and practices. The moral and ethical issues that
may arise in the environment at refugee camps are the conflict between the nurses regarding
roles and responsibilities, lack of coordination between the doctors and the nurses, indifferent
attitudes of nurses towards the patients and any kind of dishonest practices by nurses. The
dishonesty might arise out of self-interest or intimidation by someone.
Conclusion
Consequently, it is concluded from the above evaluation dealing with the health care
service provided by the nurses of Australia to the refugee camp. The nurses engage in crucial
activities that are the ultimate safeguards of the sufferers. They help and assist on a wide
basis by fulfilling the needs such as medical aid, conduct operational systems, social
conditions, care and, support, etc. Such nurses have the motive of providing the quality and

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best healing services that can help the patients to relieve quickly. These nurses eventually
identify and work further relating to all the health problems of the refugee people.
The nurses of Australia experience a lot of challenges while functioning in the other
areas due to the living conditions, the lack of communication, cultural differences, etc and
affect their overall profession. It has been identified that the method oftravelling is also a
challenge that sometimes obstructs the circumstances of the nurses. In these camps there are
several factors are responsible which might become the reason for the failure of such camps.
In the failure of the camp, the life of the refugees is on stake although the benefits which are
received by these nurses are also explained in the assignment.
References
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Damousi, J. (2019). Out of ‘Common Humanity’: Humanitarianism, Compassion and Efforts
in Australia to Assist Jewish Refugees in the 1930s. Australian Historical Studies ,
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