Exploring Roles and Challenges: Australian Nurses in Refugee Camps

This essay examines the role and function of Australian nurses working in a refugee camp setting, specifically focusing on a camp in Dobova, Slovenia, which hosts refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. The essay details the various responsibilities of nurses, including patient assessment, diagnosis, treatment of injuries and illnesses, administration of medication, and provision of psychological support and counseling. It highlights the challenges faced, such as language barriers, hostile patients, insufficient medical resources, and security concerns. Additionally, the essay explores the benefits for nurses, such as gaining new experiences, career advancement, and personal satisfaction. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of multicultural nursing and the need for ongoing efforts to support and integrate international nursing labor forces in addressing the healthcare needs of refugee populations. Desklib offers a range of similar essays and study resources for students.

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Introduction
Globalization can be defined as the process of integration and interaction between governments,
companies and people across the world (Lechner, 2009). It has grown owing to the advances in
technology in communication and transportation. It is regarded as a primary economic process of
integration and interaction that is associated with cultural and social aspects (Steger, 2010).
Therefore, this assignment will focus on identifying a specific role within an NGO and include
the geographical region. It will evaluate the function and role of an Australian nurse working in
a developing country setting or in a refugee centre outside of Australia and discuss possible
challenges and benefits the nurses may encounter working in the chosen context.
The Role and Function of a Nurse
Nursing is a science and art at the same time (Tschudin & Davis, 2008). It is not only a
demanding work but also a stimulating and joyful mission that in cooperates professional
performance and willingness to assist people and working in interest of their benefits. The main
tasks of NGOs in the health system include providing services and health advocacy (Ekeh,
2016). The provision of services includes medical, integration activities, psychological and social
services, material and financial support, care and nursing information services and educational
training. On the other hand, heath advocacy is a combination of social and individual actions
designed to draw policy support, political commitment, social acceptance as well as systems
support for a given health goal or program.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has adopted a healthcare
program that targets refugees for medical services across the world. Therefore, an Australian
nurse like any other nurse is tasked with either provision of healthcare services or health
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advocacy or both. In this case, the major focus will be on service provision. There is a refugee
camp in the village of Dobova in Slovenia filled with migrants from Afghanistan, Syrian and
Iraq. An approximate of 3000-5000 refugees cross the Slovenia-Croatian border every day.
Assessment of the patient forms the cornerstone of nursing with an aim of ensuring an integrated
and systematic review in healthcare (Leininger., 2005). An Australian nurse is expected to apply
their advanced experience and knowledge and cooperate with Trans disciplinary and
multidisciplinary teams in the medical field in the refugee camp. One of their important role is to
ensure accurate assessment of outcomes (Kingma, 2006). They carry out frequent nursing
diagnoses on the migrants. This is because majority of the refugees suffer from hyperthermia,
acute pain, diarrhea, fatigue, lack of sleep, impaired skin integrity, impaired gait and drained
volume of body fluids. In regards to the diagnosis of acute pain, the most common problem is
neck, headache, lower limb and abdomen pain. In such a case, the nurse is required to administer
the respective painkillers to the patients.
The diagnosis impaired verbal communication basically means language barrier experienced in
the refugee camp. In their nursing assessment, the nurses are charged with the responsibility of
measuring basic vital signs such as pulse, O2 saturation, blood pressure and body temperature
and blood glucose (Cohen, 2013). They treat the wounded patients with both major and minor
injuries suffered as they try crossing the border to the refugee camp. The duty of the nurse is to
ensure hydration of the refugees by administering the necessary medication to the patients.
Sometimes majority of the patients develop infection of the ears and eyes hence the Australian
nurse is expected to administer the respective drugs orally. It can also be administered through
intramuscular injections, subcutaneous (insulin) or provide infusion therapy. The personal
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nursing interventions are supposed to be carried out either in collaboration with a doctor or on
the basis of indications.
There are common nursing diagnosis associated with psychological problems such as
helplessness and hopelessness (Eckenwiler, 2012). They result mainly from difficult life
situations. Other non-infectious diseases associated with long-term stress and common among
the migrants include hypertension, diabetes, insomnia, depression, total exhaustion of the body
and neuropsychiatric disorder (Upvall & Leffers, 2014). The nurse plays the role of offering
guidance and counselling to the patients. They professionally charge the patients’ emotions
positively by connecting and identifying with them. This act helps to deal with the trauma that
majority of the refugees suffer from considering that they are victims of civil war. Others may
have lost their loved ones in their home country. Children being the most vulnerable are left
homeless and orphans. Therefore, the nurses play this vital role of getting the patients through
the healing process, emotionally (Carpenito-Moyet, 2008). It is much easy for the patients to
open up about their physical and emotional problems to the nurses as a way of seeking medical
assistance. It helps to rejuvenate hope in their lives and accept their new way of life as refugees
for the period they are hosted at Dobova camp. Through the caring and nursing services provided
by the nurses, the patient refugees are deeply convinced that they are not helpless anymore.
The nurse also provide educational training on self-management, patient activation and self-care
(Bastable, 2005). The three aspects are closely related hence aims at building on the strengths
and capacity of the patients and their cares to uphold their independence and maintain and
improve their health (Bastable, Nurse as educator : principles of teaching and learning for
nursing practice, 2017). It is important to note that patient activation describes the skills and
confidence of patients in regards to managing their own health and healthcare. The nurse is
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charged with the role of conducting a risk stratification that helps identify groups of persons with
long term conditions, low knowledge and skills and confidence who happen to be at the risk of
contracting diseases. Such people are present in the refugee camp thus the need to support them
achieve lifestyle changes like improving diet, increasing activity levels gently, drinking sensibly
and stop smoking. The nurses are ideally positioned in the refugee camp to support the patient to
make these changes in order to improve their health and wellbeing (Falvo, 2011). They also train
the patients on the importance of maintaining personal body hygiene such as proper use of
latrines, cleaning hands before having meals, washing food stuffs like fruits before consuming
them among other things.
Benefits
The nurses accrue some benefits as much as the patient does. For instance, a nurse working in a
refugee camp is able to find new creative approaches in regards to the provision of nursing care
(Young, 2012). A nurse also gains new experience within the healthcare profession under the
contemporary nursing featured in a relief setting. This is because in a relief context, the patients
come from diversified backgrounds with different kinds of illnesses, both infectious and non-
infectious. Therefore, the nurse is exposed to many forms of medical problems that require
varying medical interventions. By doing this, their experiences grow every step of the way.
Nurses always find great satisfaction in doing their work besides being paid well. They get
excellent pay and benefits. For instance, they are paid overtime and given hardship allowances
when working in a foreign and relief context. They also benefit from job security, always assured
of their jobs. Working in a relief setting provides them with unlimited opportunities for
advancement. The nurses are also able to develop new and unique methods of providing the
needed medical services. The adverse environment in the refugee camp trains them on how to
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adapt to any other equivalent context much easier, either physically or emotionally. They are
hardened by the challenges they face in a relief setting.
Challenges
The nurses sometimes face various challenges while delivering their nursing services in a
refugee camp like in Dobova (Slovenia). For instance, there is the problem of language barrier.
Since the refugees have come from different countries, they speak unique languages. The
refugees in Dobova in Slovenia come from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Therefore, the nurses
may not be Arabic speakers hence constraining any possible communication between them and
the Arabic refugees. For a while now, the issue of language barrier has been a major problem in
delivering nursing services in such a setting (DeLaet & DeLaet, 2015). Others may also be
illiterate which makes it difficult for the nurses to understand their health problems that
otherwise would have made it easy to treat them.
There is also some cases of hostile patients who are not willing to get any healthcare services
from the nurses for various reasons. For instance, some may be in denial and feeling dissolution.
Therefore, it becomes a challenge to approach these patients for treatment. Majority of patients
do not show kindness to their nurses. This is because during moments of illness, individuals tend
to be angry and may decide to unleash their anger on the closest person. However, the nurse
must find a way to work through her own emotions and feelings in order to be able to assist her
patients, which sometimes can be challenging especially when patients seem to be directing their
anger at the nurse. The other challenge is insufficient medical resources provided in a relief
setting (Callara, 2008). This results to strained nursing efforts in the camp. It means that some
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patients will likely lack access to medical services. This constraint maybe tragic in case there is
an outbreak of a contagious disease that requires urgent and comprehensive healthcare approach
because it can spread very quickly in a relief context. Another problem is insecurity due to the
large numbers of refugees in camps who pose a security threat. There may be inadequate guards
set to protect the people in the camp because of the overwhelming population of the refugees
who keep on flowing in every day fleeing from civil wars and economic crisis.
The nurse workforce also experience the problem of policy impediments which vary from one
country to another. For example, they may be required to have an operating permit from the
foreign nation. Sometimes it may take long to process and acquire such documents and this
discourages the nurses already on the ground and those interested in moving to those foreign
nations.
Conclusion
The issue of refugees should be perceived as a new social phenomenon that requires special
attention of both health and social workers. It is imperative to acknowledge the noble role played
by the nurses as a multidisciplinary team that appreciates patient with his/ her values, religious
beliefs, and customs. Therefore, in the setting of volunteering and migration, multicultural
nursing is quickly gaining prominence. The mobility and migration of nurses will require
healthcare organizations, both local and International and nations to continue with the efforts
towards better understanding of workforce models and integration, employment, regulation and
assimilation of an international nursing labor force. The most essential aspects remain which
include the cultural, technical and quality/ safety competences required by the nurses to enable
them work across borders.
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