NURS6801 Primary Health Care

Questions: Answer the following equally weighted questions: 1. How do the principles of PHC apply to the case(s) studied by your small group? 2. Briefly describe the most personally relevant things you have learnt about PHC from the overall subject. Identify a specific health or development job you have previously held, are currently working in or would like to work in. How might these things you have learnt apply to this job? Particularly, how might they change the way you do this job? Answers: Application Of Primary Health Care Principles – Asha Case Study Principles of Primary Health Care (PHC) are important in implementing essential health care to all people in a community. The PHC refer to a health care approach that provides essential health through socially acceptable and scientifically sound methods making health care accessible to all people (Valentijn et al., 2013). PHC principles include equity, participation, multi-sectoral collaboration, and health system integration. The following write up is a discussion on how principles of PHC apply to Asha project of transforming lives in the slums of Delhi a case study done by a small group that I participated. The first principle that applies in the case study is participatory. Community participation involves all community resources being used to promote and address health care issues at grass root level. The Asha program had active participation from all community members. This participation enhanced the involvement of all community members in decision making. The community was divided into several groups where each member would be able to participate both in making the decision and taking action. The groups included Mahila Mandal and Bal Mandal. The groups got empowered by informing member about women rights. The women became the main decision makers and were able to initiate and own change. The second principle of PHC that apply to the case study is equity. Equity is the accessibility, affordability, and availability of health care services being equal to all people in the society irrespective of their location, ethnicity, age, or gender. Before the Asha program, girls were treated different from boys. Girls were given different food from boy (Balarajan, Selvaraj, and Subramanian, 2011). Asha empowered women by education, medicine and health care and people were able to understand there is no difference and they started treating both genders the same. The Asha program has therefore enhanced equity in the Delphi slums community by advocating against gender discrimination. The third principle of PHC applied in the case study is health sector integration. Health sector integration involves management and organization of health care services that people are able to get care they need, when needed, in user-friendly and desirable results can be achieved while proving value for money. The Asha program had health activities and community health workers. The health activities included community centres and mobile vans that were staffed by part time doctors and nurses. Community health workers were involved in sharing health information, referrals to health centres and outreach services. Volunteers also played a role in diagnosing illnesses in the communities. The fourth principle of PHC applied in the case study is multi-sectional approach. The multi-sectoral approach recognizes that community health does not solely depend on how effective health care services are delivered but has to include other sectors as they are important in promoting self reliance and well-being of the community. The Asha project involved the government to build toilets and garbage facilities to avoid spreading of diseases. The Asha program worked with self help groups for women to empower them financially and provided education opportunities that were intended to change people’s lives. The Asha program worked in Partnership with Australia and British High Commissioners in New Delphi, Minister of Finance, Indian Government and schools and universities. Reflection Of PHC Subject PHC is a very relevant concept to me. The most relevant things that I have learnt from the overall subject about PHC are the multi-sectoral approach and role of community health workers for attaining better health outcomes. A community health outcomes cannot be improve by solely having effective health care services but having a multi-sectoral approach that promote self reliance an health of a population. This approach recognizes that health of an individual or community is caused by other factors that need to be addressed to achieve sustainable positive health outcomes. For instance, food, environment, and income have a direct impact to a population health outcome. Therefore, offering effective health care services without considering the agricultural sector or source of income for self reliance for a population will not achieve sustainable health outcomes. Community health workers (CHW) are the other relevant concept to me. CHW concept enables members of the community to get basic health services from it members. The CHW are trained and are important in acting as agents of positive change, diagnosing illness for early interventions, and give referrals to health care centers for further treatment (Herman, 2011). The CHWs are part of the community and understand the culture which is also important to an individual or population accepting and making decisions on when and where to get health services. I would like to work as a registered nurse in the future. I will have a responsibility to provide health care to families, individuals, and communities. As a registered nurse (RN) I will be interested in different population health outcomes and how I can improve them through primary health care. Haven learnt several concepts in PHC subject I am now able to understand the right approach to develop PHC strategies for specific populations to meet predetermined health outcomes. First, I will be able to design health promotion programmes and ensuring I get population support through participation. I will use the principle of participation to ensure the population owns the decisions they make about positive changes towards achieving better health outcomes. The population will be able to come up with the best practices for prevention and interventions that are acceptable to their culture. Secondly, I will apply the principle of multi-sectoral approach to provide achievable and sustainable health care. This principle will ensure I consider other sectors that impact health when developing PHC strategy for a population. I will also use community health workers for health promotion, early diagnosis, and referrals to health centres. Community health workers will also be important for disseminating health education in the community especially when primary health care is not accessible to a large group in the society. The PHC concepts will therefore change my approach, development, and implementation of primary health care to a population or community by applying the principles of PHC. This will enhance the success of my primary health care delivery in my career as a registered nurse when working with special populations or communities. References Balarajan, Y., Selvaraj, S. and Subramanian, S.V., 2011. Health care and equity in India. The Lancet, 377(9764), pp.505-515. Herman, A.A., 2011. Community health workers and integrated primary health care teams in the 21st century. The Journal of ambulatory care management, 34(4), pp.354-361. Valentijn, P.P., Schepman, S.M., Opheij, W. and Bruijnzeels, M.A., 2013. Understanding integrated care: a comprehensive conceptual framework based on the integrative functions of primary care. International journal of integrated care, 13. pp 70-90.

NURS6801 Primary Health Care

Calculate the price
of
your order:

Basic features

On-demand options

Paper format

Guaranteed originality

Affordable prices

Best experts

Calculate the price of your order

Expert paper writers are just a few clicks away

NURS6801 Primary Health Care

Calculate the price of your order:

Basic features

On-demand options

Paper format

Guaranteed originality

Affordable prices

Best experts

Calculate the price of your order

Expert paper writers are just a few clicks away

Calculate the price
of
your order: