Skills In The Management Of Non-communicable Diseases

Running Head: SKILLS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES 1
Skills In The Management Of Non-communicable Diseases
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SKILLS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES 2
Introduction
This article is an annotated bibliography on current global health issues in terms of the
priorities and interventions to deal with this global health problem. The issue that I chose to
focus on is the rise in the number and expertise of the specialists who prevent, treat and care for
the various chronic non-communicable ailments particularly in most of the unindustrialized
nations since this has been a great problem worldwide. I decided to focus on this topic because
non-communicable diseases have brought a great burden, especially to the developing countries.
However, the number of experienced and qualified healthcare practitioners who are involved in
the management of this global health issue has seen an upward trend (Bauer, Briss, Goodman &
Bowman, 2014). Non-communicable diseases also commonly referred to as chronic diseases
take a long period of time which is due to a combination of environmental, physiological, genetic
and behavioural factors. These illnesses include cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart
attack, respiratory diseases like COPD and asthma, cancers and asthma (Muka et al. 2015).
Each year, around fifteen million people die from the non-communicable diseases from
the age of 30 years and 70 years and many of these demises happen in the unindustrialized
countries (Leeder, Jowsey & McNab, 2018). The health sector has had inventions and priorities
to deal with these diseases through extensive training of healthcare professionals who are
involved in the management of these illnesses (Ding et al. 2016). The healthcare professionals
are now being trained to acquire vital skills that are needed to enable them to help patients to
overcome non-communicable illnesses (Duckett & Willcox, 2015). This assistance is through
having the ability to advise patients against smoking, bodily inactivity, unwholesome diets and
extreme alcohol intake which increases the risk of dying from these illnesses especially in the
developing countries (Chaker et al. 2015). Therefore, the three articles that I chose focuses on the

SKILLS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES 3
improvement in skills of healthcare professionals in terms of having the capabilities of early
detection, screening as well as effective treatment of non-communicable diseases which are the
main components of the response to non-communicable diseases.
Nurse Skills For Non-Communicable Disease Managing In The Primary Care Setting In
South Africa.
Fairall, L. R., Folb, N., Timmerman, V., Lombard, C., Steyn, K., Bachmann, M. O., ... &
Gaziano, T. (2016). Educational outreach with an integrated clinical tool for nurse-led non-
communicable chronic disease management in primary care in South Africa: a pragmatic cluster
randomised controlled trial. PLoS medicine, 13(11), e1002178.
Topic
In this article, the authors focus on the professional skills that are required by nurses to
manage different non-communicable disease in South Africa which is one of the developing
countries with this health problem. According to this article, non-communicable ailments have
been the leading reason of death especially in the third world countries and therefore the health
professionals should develop new skills so as to be able to deal with this global issue through
prioritization, interventions and innovations in the primary care setting. Training of health
professionals on effective and affordable treatment prevents the complications that would arise
due to these illnesses. The authors state that in the underdeveloped countries, the upkeep for
patients with is mostly given by the nurses. There are numerous importance of nurse substitution,
supplementation and training in the high-income countries while in the low-income countries it
is inadequate. The Primary Care 101 (PC 101) is a program that has been designed so as to
support and expand the role and skills of the nurse in non-communicable disease care. This

SKILLS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES 4
model involves training nurses in the medical managing with improved prescribing requirements.
The authors of this article evaluate the effect of this program on the improvement of the primary
care nurses’ skills and capacity to manage non-communicable diseases.
Methods
The trial design comprised 38 public primary care hospitals in South Africa. The nurses
involved in the managing of non-communicable sicknesses were competent to use the PC 101
administration device and given the skill, authority and abilities to be able to prescribe a wide
range of medication for most of the non-communicable illnesses. The control clinics were
allowed to continue using the old skills and the Practical Approach.
Findings
According to this article, the study results showed that in the clinics where the nurses
were given new skills and training and the authority to dispense a wide range of drugs, the
treatment of the non-communicable diseases was superior and there was a great improvement in
the health of the patients as compared to the control clinics. Therefore, it is evident that
multimorbidity, deprived recognition and lack of appropriate skills that are necessary to control
non-communicable ailments are the common source of the many problems brought about by
these illnesses. Therefore, the physicians should have the right skills to give the interventions
that are needed to limit the adverse effects that could be caused by the non-communicable
diseases on the individual’s personal health and the quality of life.
Conclusion and Relevance
The authors conclude that the skills gained by the healthcare professionals through
training in the managing of non-communicable ailments were safe, feasible and led to improved