Introduction
The health services article captures a case in which an indigenous woman died on a Saturday when the 650 kilometers south-east of Katherine population were attending a funeral and she fell ill. According to Jack Green, he said he had called the Borroloolas Health Clinic to request to an ambulance but was turned down by a staff member though no reason was provided despite him dictating the events of the time. The womans family member had to take the initiative and drive her to the clinic though she was declared dead upon arrival. It was evident that the fact that there was no particular reason provided and that if an ambulance came on time it might have just saved the womans life, the case was said to be investigated on a priority level. However, it beats logic why the clinic refused to send an ambulance considering they knew the lady had a crook health and such a sudden death shocked her family as well.
Mr. Green suggested that to avoid such circumstances in the past, it would be appropriate if the clinic would consider providing an ambulance during funerals just to avoid a repetition of the same. As a result, the social determinants of health in question will range from availability of health resources, access to health care services, quality of health care services, availability of community based health resources which support community living or opportunities, availability of transportation options, social support, residential segregation and public safety (Deek et al., 2013).
Analysis of Social determinant in Health and Indigenous People
International experiences have shown that enhanced indigenous health could be achieved by culturally appropriate recruitment, retention as well as support strategies that increase the involvement of individuals from such communities in education programs not to mention health care delivery life skills (Indigenous Nursing Education Working Group, 2002). It has been observed that indigenous health professionals in the health system tend to have a higher affiliation to the job hence are more concerned with the health of their families, communities as well as themselves as compared to non-indigenous professionals. In addition, it has also been noted that providing non-indigenous health professionals with the necessary background on indigenous health care issues will highly affect how they handle the health status of the indigenous community (Dingwall et al., 2015).
It is without doubt that the health of indigenous Australians appears worse as compared to non-indigenous individuals and strategies that have been worked out to bring down morbidity and mortality on indigenous people have mostly failed. Therefore, it is imperative to have a system that will realize competent health workforce capacitated to providing special and appropriate care for these communities. This will ensure that the current health systems get to be aligned to the indigenous peoples culture rather than being associated with western values which affects their modes of delivery (Ward et al., 2014).
The Office or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health has been reported to work be working with the Indigenous Nursing Education Working Group as part of the initiative of increasing the number of registered indigenous health professionals with an aim of improving competency for Australian nursing workforce hence appropriate in delivering the service (Mc Loughlin et al., 2014). The Working Group also works with representatives from the Australian Council of Deans of Nursing and the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses with an aim of supporting reforms in the thinking of health professionals especially on the poor health status of the indigenous community hence increasing their attention and ability to participate in the kind of health care delivery that is expected (Malseed et al., 2014).
It is important for the INE Working Group to consider advocating for a national approach that will seek to develop, implement and evaluate recruitment, retention as well as curricula policies that will look into increasing the number of indigenous graduates in the health profession, especially the nursing programs. This is because it will raise their capacity and having an understanding of indigenous people in a better way, it is expected that Australian indigenous nurses will have a higher participation in work well with the population as compared to non-indigenous health professionals. In addition to that, it will be important for Australian universities to facilitated research that will ensure that the health profession looks into the history and culture of indigenous people and implement the same in their undergraduate and postgraduate health curricula (Stewart et al., 2012). This will be used as a steering will to involve both indigenous and non-indigenous registered nurses in accepting a new way of teaching and embracing the curriculum development that allows for community involvement and relation. Recent statistics have shown that several universities are integrated this portfolio in their nursing curriculum as part of embracing specific and coherent indigenous health comprehensive c components for the betterment of such services (Campbell et al., 2015).
Other stakeholders should also be involved in this research and implementation by being profiled with reports and feedback on how the commission has been catching up since its inception. Workshops and seminars should be health to consult on wide range of individuals in the health sector hence enabling the government and other major players to formulate a strategic framework that aims to capture at least five years period. In any case, there are four main objectives in understanding and implementing such a framework. This may include
Increasing the recruitment, retention as well as graduation of indigenous students in the health profession
Promotion of integration for indigenous health problems as part of the core nursing curricula
Improvement of the health service delivery as provided by the indigenous nurses and;
Monitoring of outcomes and revising of strategies accordingly
As a result, it is important to consider knowledge, understanding and respect of the past events, cultural beliefs, cultural practices or values with the aim of having a greater impact on the health and wellbeing of indigenous communities. This increased cultural capacity will necessitate the ability of social justice issues to be easily resolved by being prevented rather than looking into cases that are being investigated after it was discovered that appropriate measures were not taken as expected (Sinclair et al., 2014). This will in a big way build on the self-esteem of indigenous people to invest and encourage their children to venture more into the health industry as they will associate it with success and giving back to the society (Adams et al., 2014).
Another inclination is understanding and applying different concepts in a holistic approach that will give primary health care gives an urge to look into indigenous health issues, appreciate what the indigenous people consider is their perception towards health and health education. This should then be used as a model to build up the latest National Aboriginal Health Strategy in recognition of the current cultural needs of Australian indigenous people hence improving on the effectiveness of recruiting, retention and educating indigenous people within the health profession (Sherwood, 2013)
Accountability and responsibility also have to be improved to enable the sharing of such a responsibility among the governments, health care stakeholders, the community and individual health professionals. Therefore, streamlined application and enrolment procedures that look into getting more indigenous students graduate in the health profession is important as it will communicate the potential of such students to the potential outcomes to which the strategic framework is looking up to. In addition, the continuous services as provided in Indigenous Student Support Centers in universities is also to be encouraged as it will assist in recruiting more students to the nursing profession. It is therefore important to consider having informational sessions in primary and secondary schools with an aim of encouraging Australian indigenous students to invest in health professions (Markwick et al., 2014).
In conclusion, the continued collection of data on the number of indigenous registered nurses will assist in understanding the current position of Australian in this agenda. Furthermore, looking into cultural sensitive promotional material will allow students in primary and secondary schools to refocus their desired professions to giving back to the society and this is to be mainly facilitated by pursing health-related careers (Chapman, Smith & Martin, 2014). The strategic framework will be expected to provide a proper ground for the increase of scholarships for indigenous students seeking to pursue health related careers including the reintroduction of travel allowances that is disseminated to indigenous students pursuing nursing with consideration of them not being recipients of ABSTUDY when attending clinical practice placements. It is also expected that there will be provision of HECS scholarships specific for indigenous students in health professions and the Indigenous Student Support Centers will be used as platforms to collaborate mentorship by identifying individuals with the necessary skill and knowhow and link them to indigenous students in nursing (Campbell, 2014).
Facilitating the understanding of indigenous culture among the indigenous and non-indigenous health professionals today will also assist in providing high-end counseling and other health related services as part of the mandate in establishing compulsory subjects/units/modules that focus mainly on the culture, history and health predicaments in Australia. This will be expected to raise alarm on students and refocus the mindsets of professionals in practice. Consistency in this line of work will ensure that ANCI competencies are in check, public transportation and safety is assured and nursing and midwifery undergraduate or post graduate curricula are re-accredited