Socially Inclusive Nursing to Promote Health Equity

Running head: SOCIALLY INCLUSIVE NURSING TO PROMOTE HEALTH EQUITY.
SOCIALLY INCLUSIVE NURSING TO PROMOTE HEALTH EQUITY
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1SOCIALLY INCLUSIVE NURSING TO PROMOTE HEALTH EQUITY
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are native Australians. It is believed
that they were the first ones to move out of Africa about 50,000 years ago. The health of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has poor health status when compared with the
other Australians (Gee et al., 2014). There is a vast inequality gap between the indigenous
and non-indigenous inhabitants of Australia. The native inhabitants do not have an equal
opportunity to the healthcare services as the immigrant or the foreign inhabitants (Sherwood
& Geia, 2014). Thus, the natives are eventually less healthy than others (Donato & Segal,
2013). The socio-economic differences that they face place them at risk of more significant
exposure to different environmental and behavioural health risk factors. To reduce this
inequality gap very little has been done. This study is based on the strategies that nurses can
apply to ensure socially inclusive healthcare service, and to create greater healthcare equality
for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The health determinants factors are those that contribute to one’s state of health. The
elements can be socio-economical, biological, behavioural, psychological and social. Access
to quality healthcare services is one of the crucial factors of health determinants ("Social
determinants and the health of Indigenous peoples in Australia – a human rights-based
approach | Australian Human Rights Commission", 2019). The Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander inhabitants do not get access to proper education too; lack of it also results in their
poor health status besides the above factors. The primary approach for health equity is to
address social determinants, which are discrimination and income. The health care services
should be accessible to all without any prejudice; this is the fundamental right of every
people. The nurses should be trained so that they do not discriminate people based on their
ethnicity and social status; they should be prepared to go any place for the health care
services. They should be socially inclusive and not exclusive (Yanicki, Kushner & Reutter,
2014). Being socially inclusive, the nurses can improve the health of the native inhabitants of

2SOCIALLY INCLUSIVE NURSING TO PROMOTE HEALTH EQUITY
Australia by giving them proper medication and teach them about health and hygiene through
community-based educational programs, which helps one to identify and rectify the health
issues. The community nurses teach preventive measures by giving them information about
the disease or health issue prevailing in a community, about avoidance of common practices
to prevent specific health issues, either verbally or written in the form of a flier. Thus, the
nurses can be an essential link in a health equity program for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people.
The nurses have a massive impact on the health of the native inhabitants, firstly due to
their significant contribution to primary health care. The enforcement of population-based
preventive measures benefits mostly the indigenous population. The preventive measures are
based on evidence such as screenings. The preventive measures are regular exercise and
weight management, healthy eating, avoiding drugs and smoking, low or moderate alcohol
consumption. The nurses help one by counselling them and giving precautionary medications
as a means of preventive measures. Secondly, nurses are in the acute care system, which is
mostly the first contact with the health service for the indigenous people. Lastly, yet most
importantly, the nurses are the only health service providers in the remote regions where the
indigenous people inhabit, acting as the mediator of the health system.
The nurses for the mentioned reasons have a few critical roles and responsibilities.
Firstly, they act as a disease prevention specialist. The community health nurses focus on
prevention of disease for both long and short terms. Their work is to control and prevent the
spread of different infectious diseases like flu. They help the mothers of the newly born to
keep their babies healthy and thus, decrease the mortality rate of the infants. They also
identify the gaps in the services and help to fill them. Secondly, they cross the boundaries of
culture, literacy and language boundaries to give the children and adults of the native
inhabitants’ access to proper health care services so that they can shape their health and well-