UNCC100: Lack of Healthcare Access in Australia and Nursing

This essay addresses the lack of access to medical assistance and healthcare in certain parts of Australia, exploring its impact on human dignity and the common good from a nursing perspective. It argues that nurses have a crucial role in upholding patient dignity by ensuring confidentiality, providing unbiased care, and promoting the common good through fair treatment and health promotion. The essay emphasizes that lack of access to healthcare is a violation of human rights and ethical codes, and nurses must advocate for equal rights and healthcare access for all Australians. It references the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Board and Royal College of Nursing to support its arguments, highlighting the significance of nurses' actions in maintaining patient dignity, confidence, and the realization of common good within the healthcare system.

Common Good and Human Dignity 1
LACK OF ACCESS TO MEDICAL ASSISTANCE/HEALTH CARE IN SOME PARTS
OF AUSTRALIA
By (Student’s Name)
Professor’s Name
College
Course
Date

Common Good and Human Dignity 2
LACK OF ACCESS TO MEDICAL ASSISTANCE/HEALTH CARE IN SOME PARTS
OF AUSTRALIA
For an individual in the nursing profession, various skills have to be utilized not solely to
keep patients safe and healthy, but also to assist them in retaining their worth and dignity.
Multiple reasons exist why patients’ values have to be upheld in all parts of Australia by giving
access to medical assistance or health care; however, human dignity and common good define
what being a nurse encompass. Lack of access to medical aid or health care in certain parts of
Australia violates the dignity of a person and common goods.
Nurses who treat patients with respect uphold dignity to human. Everything nurses do or
perform have to be in the patients’ best interest, and have to respect the wishes of the patients.
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Board explains that a nurse has to interact with all patients in
the best way feasible, making the patients’ needs alongside wishes the preference and
maintaining their dignity via the provision of respect, irrespective of the condition (Parandeh
Khaghanizade, Mohammadi and Mokhtari-Nouri 2016). An individual’s dignity remains
integral to himself and allows him to feel valued. This is why nursing profession is built upon
this notion of putting aside personal differences. An instance of the manner a nurse can uphold
human dignity is via the patients’ confidentiality, access to medical services for all and provision
of unbiased care to patients. Confidentiality implies that a nurse need not speak regarding the
problems facing the patient to preserve his privacy, dignity and respect (McSherry 2016).
Another instance is that a nurse will maintain the dignity of a patient by understanding
the emotions of a patient and acting positively upon such emotions. Royal College of Nursing
explains that susceptible patients always feel demeaned in case the nurse caring for them show
adversarial emotional sigs towards them while positive emotional sigs towards the patients help

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patients boost their confidence and morale. Thus, nurses play an extremely significant role in the
maintenance of patient dignity and confidence (Jarvie and Ahrens 2018).
Realization of common good remains a significant part of nursing. Several individuals
come via hospitals: old, poor, rich, young and realizing that regardless of who is admitted into a
hospital, they deserve basic respect alongside fair treatment is essential. Thus, there is a need for
every Australian to access medical services and health care for the common good to be
accomplished (Jacobs 2016). This is demonstrated via nursing in terms of communication
whereby the manner a patient is addressed and talked to reflect this notion of the common good
and treating all Australian with fairness.
Another means through which nursing profession participate actively in common good
idea is promoting health for all without leaving others out of the health care system. This will
allow the nurse to treat as well as serve the patients even following the treatment by providing
the best accessible information to help maintain health for all (Parandeh, Khaghanizade,
Mohammadi and Mokhtari-Nouri 2016). Another example of the realization of the common
good by the nursing profession is via the incident reporting of potential suspected patient abuse
as this upholds the notion of the common good. The fact that some parts of Australia have a lack
of access to medical care or health care is in itself patient’s abuse. Royal College of Nursing
holds that reporting such incidences within the patient allows a suffering patient to receive
assistance, not solely in health, but with their domestic challenge. This makes them safeguarded
from harm due to lack of health care demonstrating how nurses realize common good with the
nursing profession (Høy et al., 2016).
The nursing profession is premised on the idea that individuals enjoy the right to get
access to health care. The patients should also be treated with fairness and equal rights. Gender,

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age, ethnic background alongside religious beliefs must be put aside when nurses give care and
adhere to the ethical codes. This makes nurses to value the diversity of all Australians and access
to healthcare for everyone. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia hold that the nursing
profession remains devoted to respect, promote, safeguard, and uphold the people’s fundamental
rights who receive healthcare. Thus, demonstrating how a nurse, even nursing students, is
devoted to advocating for equal rights by fairly treating patients within their care irrespective of
where they come from or who they are (Dickerson, Klingman and Jungquist 2016).
Upholding dignity to person and common good realization remains a significant part of
the nursing profession and serving as the foundation for applying various skills and preserving
the dignity of the patients while concurrently providing respect and allowing patients to be well
and healthy.

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References
Dickerson, S.S., Klingman, K.J. and Jungquist, C.R., 2016. Common meanings of good and bad
sleep in a healthy population sample. Sleep health, 2(3), pp.253-259.
Høy, B., Lillestø, B., Slettebø, Å., Sæteren, B., Heggestad, A.K.T., Caspari, S., Aasgaard, T.,
Lohne, V., Rehnsfeldt, A., Råholm, M.B. and Lindwall, L., 2016. Maintaining dignity in
vulnerability: A qualitative study of the residents’ perspective on dignity in nursing
homes. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 60, pp.91-98.
Jacobs, B.B., 2016. Respect for human dignity in nursing: Philosophical and practical
perspectives. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 32(2).
Jarvie, G. and Ahrens, S., 2018. Sport for Social Justice, Capability, and the Common Good: A
Position Statement in Honor of Tessa Jowell. Quest, pp.1-13.
McSherry, W., 2016. Reintegrating spirituality and dignity in nursing and health care: A
relational model of practice. Stories of Dignity within Healthcare: Research, Narratives and
Theories. Edited by O. Tranvåg, O. Synnes and W. McSherry. Keswick: M&K Publishing, chp, 6,
pp.75-96.
Parandeh, A., Khaghanizade, M., Mohammadi, E. and Mokhtari-Nouri, J., 2016. Nurses’ human
dignity in education and practice: An integrated literature review. Iranian journal of nursing and
midwifery research, 21(1), p.1.

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midwifery research, 21(1), p.1.