Paper Example on Issues Affecting Health Care Access in Australia

Introduction

Access to quality healthcare is a major challenge for governments all over the world. Australia prides itself as one of the leading countries in the developed world who has excelled in the provision of quality health services as evidenced in the high life expectancy of Australians recorded over recent years. For example, between 2008 and 2010, the average life expectancy of Australians was 79.5 years and 84.0 years for men and women respectively (Australian Government Department of Health, 2013). Despite this impressive statistics, several challenges continue to hinder the provision of high-quality health care to some segments of the Austrian society. Historical and economic factors have been highlighted as the leading impediments to health organisations' ability to provide quality care. This paper aims at revealing how racism and traditions and customs hamper delivery of quality health care in Australia.

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Traditions and Customs

Traditions and customs are essential elements of any culture. Traditions and customs define the way people live and their interactions with their social environment. A critical aspect of traditions and customs regarding health is that they influence health beliefs and attitudes of a particular group of people thereby affecting their ability to access medical attention and adhere to treatment regimes prescribed by clinicians (Li, 2017). Thus, traditions and customs affect health outcomes.

Medication adherence has been described as the extent to which medication-taking behaviour of patients corresponds with the medication mechanisms that have been prescribed by medical professionals (Md Hatah, Lim, Mohd Ali, Mohamed Shah, & Islahudin, 2015). Adherence to the taking of drugs and prescribed medication regimen is critical in the sense that it affects the disease progression and the ability of the patients to respond positively to treatment (Li, 2017). In a social environment where health beliefs and attitudes do not favour modern techniques of treatment, achieving positive health outcomes can be challenging. Therefore, the nurse's ability to understand the influence of traditions and customs on health outcomes is critical to high-quality health outcomes for culturally-sensitive populations.

In Australia, adherence to medication regimens and the ability of the citizens to seek medical treatment whenever appropriate are major challenges undermining the ability of healthcare organisations to achieve high-quality care for minority groups in the country. Studies focusing on the influence of health beliefs and attitudes towards adherence to medication have shown that these aspects of culture influence their willingness to adhere to medication among minority Australians (Conway, Tsourtos, & Lawn, 2017). In general, people tend to trust persons with whom they share ethnicity, country, social class and religion. Lack of connection between the medical professionals and individuals with whom they do not share can be a serious hindrance to quality health service delivery (Li, 2017; Artuso, Cargo, Brown, & Daniel, 2013). This is due to inherent suspicions held by minority groups regarding the honesty of the intentions of the health service providers hence the tendency to avoid visiting medical facilities.

No other relations are suspicions more open than the relationship that exists between the Australian health organisations and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Australians. The indigenous groups have over the years developed attitudes and beliefs that do not favour adherence to medical treatment because they see such services as foreign and incompatible with their way of life. The problem of adhesion is even aggravated by the fact that some feel that the providers of the health services do not belong to their culture. Hence, they do not feel safe that the treatment techniques used by 'outsiders' is done in their best interests. Further, cultural incompetency among health professionals working in outer and remote areas of the country hinders effective communication between patients in these regions (Li, 2017; Md Hatah et al., 2015). Given these circumstances, it is crucial that the government encourages training of nurses from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people who can help in creating the necessary cultural connection needed to promote adherence to treatment. The results of such approach have shown that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders feel safe with nurses who belong to their ethnicity and speak their local languages, leading to high-quality outcomes (Gibson et al., 2015).

Seeking medical treatment among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is a significant challenge to the attainment of high-quality health outcomes in Australia. Gender issues are major aspects of culture impacting health outcomes among minority Australians. Gender affects the ability of men, women and youth to visit medical facilities in the sense that the decision is made based on how other members of society would react to one's decision. For instance, studies have found that men do not visit hospitals for screening because they do not consider that a priority over going about their daily activities to support their families (Li, 2017). Women and girls are stigmatised if known to suffer from sexually transmitted diseases. This stigma emanates from deeply-rooted gender-related descriptions about the expectations of society on women and girls. In other words, women and girls are expected to behave or project themselves in certain ways that uphold customs and traditions as people who are not supposed to have multiple sexual encounters (Newman et al., 2014). As a result, women and girls shy away from seeking medical attention for diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections due to stereotypes that projects them as immoral.

Racism

Racial discrimination is a historical issue which affects almost all aspects of the lives of minority Australians. Racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders is a collective experience in the healthcare system. Racism manifests itself in prejudices, stereotypes, beliefs discrimination towards indigenous people (AIDA, 2017). For instance, stereotypes and prejudices of medical professionals significantly affect treatment outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. A health service that devalues others increases suspicion towards health workers since they tend to feel that the intentions of medical officers are not genuine in addressing health issues of indigenous people. When patients feel that medical officers devalue their humanity, they are less likely to visit health centres or disclose vital information to the officers about their illness (Li, 2017). At the same time, racial prejudices cause internalised effects whereby victims develop negative self-images which, in turn, results in stress, depression and poor mental health outcomes. Consequently, many indigenous people fail to get services of similar quality with rest of other Australians.

Institutional racism is one of the most limiting factors to accessing health care for people living in rural areas. This type of racism causes indirect effects that stem from inadequate and unequal access to medical, social and economic resources necessary for indigenous people to attain good health (Shepherd, Li, Cooper, Hopkins, & Farrant, 2017). In rural areas, where a majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders reside, hospitals are not well equipped with facilities needed to address the health needs of the rural populations. Additionally, health workers are not well-equipped with the right competencies to handle the unique health needs of rural Australians. Moreover, poor transport networks frustrate effort to reach rural communities as well as undermine the willingness of rural residents to seek medical attention (AIDA, 2017; Li, 2017; Conway, Tsourtos, & Lawn, 2017). For instance, residents that live in outer and remote areas are 4.5 times likely to commute more than an hour to see a medical officer as a compared to those that reside in cities (Australian Government Department of Health, 2013). Given these institutional weaknesses, Aboriginal and Strait Islanders lack access to quality healthcare. Thus, it is critical for a nurse to understand these institutional policies to avoid propagating intentions of a racist health care system while offering frontline medical services to rural populations.

Income inequalities are also historical factors affecting access to good health among rural Australians. Due to economic marginalization, Aboriginal and Strait Islanders lack the necessary resources needed for upward social mobility. For instance, low incomes among rural populations limit them from accessing the best education necessary for one to acquire adequate information on how to protect personal health. In effect, low incomes undermine social mobility of indigenous people as it limits academic progression (Friel, 2016; Mather et al., 2014). Lack of knowledge coupled with cultural beliefs limit some indigenous populations from seeking help at health facilities. The fact that many of these facilities are located far away from their areas of residence further discourages them from seeking medical care.

Conclusion

Traditions and customs play a critical role in determining the quality of health care. Notably, traditions and customs create beliefs and attitudes that discourage indigenous Australians from seeking medical care and adhering to medication regimens. Racism impacts on people's health in several ways: It affects mental health, allocation of resources, and the ability of ethnic minorities to access medical care. For a nurse, it is critical to acquire cultural competency skills enhance information sharing among patients of marginalised populations. Nurses can acquire the skills through training programs. Additionally, learning about the sensitivity of ethnic minorities towards any form of racism (overt or covert) is critical to establishing a healthy working relationship with rural communities. Above all, it is vital for the nurses to play a part in fighting racism to boost the confidence of minority groups in the healthcare systems.

References

Artuso, S., Cargo, M., Brown, A., & Daniel, M. (2013). Factors influencing health care utilisation among Aboriginal cardiac patients in central Australia: a qualitative study. BMC Health Services Research, 13(1), 1-13. doi:10.1186/1472-6963-13-83

Askew at al, D. (2013). To your door: Factors that influence Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples seeking care. Retrieved from http://www.kvc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Paper-Mono-1-CD-20130624-v42-Submitted.pdf

Australian Government Health Department. (2015). Systemic national challenges in health care. Retrieved from http://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/NPHC-Strategic-Framework~systemic

Australian Indigenous Doctors Association. (2017). Racism in Australia's health system. Retrieved from https://www.aida.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Racism-in-Australias-health-system-AIDA-policy-statement_v1.pdf

Conway, J., Tsourtos, G., & Lawn, S. (2017). The barriers and facilitators that indigenous health workers experience in their workplace and communities in providing self-management support: a multiple case study. BMC Health Services Research, 17(1), 1-13. doi:10.1186/s12913-017-2265-5

Friel, S. (2016, September 1). How class and wealth affects our health. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-01/how-class-and-wealth-affect-our-health/7795238

Gibson, O., Lisy, K., Davy, C., Aromataris, E., Kite, E., Lockwood, C., ... Brown, A. (2015). Enablers and barriers to the implementation of primary health care intervention...