The health care sector is among the areas that face global issues that lead to the emergence of vulnerable populations and disparity in the present day. Such global problems include poverty, social injustice, and culture. This paper seeks to discuss the global issues leading to the existence of vulnerable populations and health disparities and how the health care professionals can advocate for the vulnerable subgroups at a worldwide level.
Millions of people are reported to die every year due to easily preventable diseases. It is attributed to the high level of poverty such that the affected cannot raise the required amount of money to access high-quality healthcare services. Poverty has a direct relationship with ill health. It is because of the unfortunate lack of resources to invest in good health; this includes sufficient quantities of food and quality health care. Sometimes, the health disparities on the poor are not caused by poverty alone; other factors include the lack of information on the appropriate practices that promote good health. Therefore, such people need information givers to make social services work for them.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
On the other hand, poor health is a significant cause of poverty. It is so because people may spend a lot of money on health care services such as consultations, tests, and prescribed drugs. The patient and family members may also incur additional costs on transportation and any other informal payments to the health care providers. Sometimes, the patient can be advised to change the diet altogether. Therefore, he or she will have to spend more thus leading to poverty in the long run. The situation can be extreme if the sick person is the breadwinner in the family. It will mean that he or she will be obliged to stop working thus leading to a considerable loss of income. Also, such families might be forced to sell family assets to cover substantial medical expenses or even borrow loans at high-interest rates (Benatar, 2016).
All human beings are entitled to quality health care irrespective of their backgrounds. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights guarantee the people of the right to enjoyment of the highest standard of physical and mental health. It states that health has a special and an irreplaceable meaning to a person and the community at large (Ruger, 2012). Good health is a measure of the intrinsic value for comfort, satisfaction and it is the joy of life. Therefore, denying a person a right to access quality healthcare just because he or she comes from a different social division is the same as denying them the right to live happily. The concept of social justice requires nurses to uphold moral, ethical and legal principles that relate to health for them to provide their services without any form of discrimination. It implies that the benefits and burdens are fairly and equitably distributed. The benefits are such things as clean air, prenatal care, and competent healthcare providers while the health-related weights are the cost of health care services and illness-related morbidity and mortality. The ideology of social justice seeks to balance these benefits and responsibilities for all individuals in the society without any form of bias. The most vulnerable populations to the social injustice vice are the immigrants, the uninsured, the poor, minority racial or ethnic groups, children, elderly and those with a specific illness such as terminal diseases. It is because these subgroups tend to be disadvantaged in one way or another. A decent level of health provision is necessary to ensure economic prosperity, collective security, political participation and many more benefits that make a society a better place to be. An organization that values human rights needs a good policy for health justice. It should be at the forefront of providing essential health drivers. These drivers of health are clean air, nutritious food, safe drinking water, surveillance, and preventive measures.
Culture is one of the global issues leading to the emergence of health disparities in the present world. It is a pattern of customs, ideas, and behaviors that define a particular group of people or a society. This pattern is seen to be evolving while the speed of evolution increases when a group incorporates a new culture into the already existing one. A culture can either be a collectivist or an individualist. The health professionals need to understand the difference between the two to help with diagnosis and when tailoring a treatment plan that includes the population that shares the same cultural beliefs. Culture has a vast influence on health as it affects the perceptions of wellbeing, illness, and death. It also changes the feelings that people have about the causes of disease, the various approaches to healthy lives, how one experiences pain and illnesses and how they are expressed, the facility to seek help from and the types of treatment procedures that a patient would prefer. It happens that sometimes, the dominant culture can influence and shape the health system. Health-related preferences and the perceptions on various aspects may result in cultural bias in a healthcare environment. The cultural competence and dominance may give the people from such a culture more preference as their culture would have shaped the entire health system. Given this perspective, the care providers tend to ask various questions concerning their beliefs so that they can incorporate the new awareness into the diagnosis process and the treatment plan. Since the world is made up of different cultures, it will mean that there will be different diagnostic procedures and treatment plans based on the religion of the patient, hence the health disparities.
The global issues are the factors responsible for health disparities worldwide. A lot needs to be done to bring the health services to a decent level to ensure collective security, economic and social prosperity, political participation and the general wellbeing of all the people. Governments need to implement policies and programs that aim in reducing the inequalities in health departments and enhance financial freedom and protection. They should work at reducing the average cost of care at the point of service delivery. It can do this by charging fewer fees on the poor or even expanding their health insurance cover such that they pay less and have complete health coverage. It should also address the determinants of inequalities by bringing the services closer to the poor and subsidizing the travel costs to reduce the total medical expenses. Another strategy is to prevent poverty due to illness through the improvement of financial protection. Taking a comprehensive insurance cover is one of the ways of avoiding poverty that is caused by the disease. Also, shared health governance should be put in place; this is where the researcher's governments, health insurers, health professionals and the members of the social work together to come up with a consensus around health matters and priorities. The priorities would be such matters as child/maternal care, alleviating poverty and hunger and water sanitation. The health practitioners ought to practice social justice in all their dealings and that they should become the agents of change for the benefit of the generations to come. The social conditions should not dictate the level of services to render to an individual. Instead, they should be the crucial determinants of good health that result in a long and productive life. Cultural beliefs and customs should promote health rather than being a source of health disparities. The health pa professionals should demonstrate awareness of a patient’s culture and use the findings to encourage trust, better health care services and help the patient accept the diagnoses and the treatment plan.
The Sustainable Development Goals are the strategies set to achieve a better and reliable future for all. The goals address the challenges affecting the entire globe. They include eradication of poverty and hunger, achievement of environmental sustainability, combating diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, improving the maternal health and reducing the child mortality rate, the success of universal primary education, and promotion of gender equality among others (WHO, 2016). A lot can be done to uphold these goals. We can eradicate hunger and poverty by investing in agriculture and making use of available resources like water and vegetation. Agricultural production alone can help realize a zero-hunger globe. Environmental conservation measures such as afforestation will go a long way in reducing the effects of global warming and in the end achieve a sustainable environment. Highly motivated medical research is essential in preventing diseases and finding a cure for terminal illnesses such as cancer and HIV/AIDS. Education is the key that opens opportunities and can change the world; thus, channeling more resources to it will help realize the universal primary education goal.
Our responsibilities in ethical norms in a healthcare unit will revolve around the promotion of health, preventing illnesses and removing suffering from the patients entrusted to us. Ethics are a fundamental aspect of the field of nursing. Nurses should respect the patients, maintain their dignity and protect their rights. An environment of mutual trust between the nurse and the patient is vital for the nurse to execute his/ her duties in a way that it will not violate the rights of the patient. The healthcare providers, should protect the privacy of the patients, listen to their wishes and grant them the care they would want to receive.
In conclusion, the vulnerable populations are at a higher risk of contracting diseases and that they are not financially protected from catering to quality medical services. The disparities in healthcare limit the overall in the quality of services offered and the health benefits to the entire population apart from the groups facing the inequalities. The global community is becoming more diverse, and as a result, the health disparities are also increasing. Thus, it calls for more attention in addressing the issue.
References
Benatar, S. (2016). Politics, power, poverty and global health: systems and frames. International journal of health policy and management , 5 (10), 599.
Ruger, J. P. (2012). Global health justice and governance. The American Journal of Bioethics , 12 (12), 35-54.
World Health Organization. (2016). World health statistics 2016: monitoring health for SDGs sustainable development goals . World Health Organization.
