Short-Term Medical Missions: Facilitating Healthcare Access in Developing Nations - Essay Sample

Introduction

In current years, short-term medical sustainability, mainly in terms of short-term medical missions (STMMs), is becoming well-organized vehicles for extended reach of healthcare providers to the developing world. Most of these undertakings or missions appeal to the medical practitioners because of their exceptional blending of a direct approach to health care and philanthropy (Berry, 2014). These missions are characterized by a grouping of healthcare providers visiting an overseas land for reasons of undertaking a specific study and treatments for a short duration of time. Such an extensive definition covers a broad array of services that range from surgical mission offering cataract extraction or craniofacial reconstruction to pediatric and medical missions offering care for chronic disease and acute illnesses.

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However, although these missions are seen as essential tools for offering healthcare solutions to various underprivileged societies in developing countries, various questions can be asked regarding offering short-term medical assistance and their sustainability. The scarcity of follow-up information, lack of sustainability, and poor relations with local hospitals can defy the excellent intents of missions. Although the intentions of the mission in offering short-term medical sustainability, cases showing the opposite have been witnessed across the world.

Concerning the medical services they offer across the world, the STMMs have become popular and favored by many people in the developing world. Several people have been able to get treatments concerning various outbreaks, chronic diseases, and acute illnesses that they could not have afforded to cure.

As the number of STMMs rises, substantial human and financial resources are spent on offering these services. Therefore, it is likely for most of the people that get this help judge the STMMs on the face value without having a detailed analysis of their practices and possible harms that they bring. Although there lack a complete or official compendium of these missions across the world, an investigation of the three major mission websites showed a list of about 543 medical mission associations estimating an annual expenditure of approximately $250 million (Melby et al., 2016).

However, despite such recognizable expenditures and the scope and number of short-term medical missions, there is a scantiness of literature on the issue. Devoid of appropriate assessment standards, issues concerning patient safety, impact evaluation, and quality control are easily disregarded because the organizations are frequently locally planned and privately financed with no limitations. Therefore, this can result in devastating outcomes, such as two patient fatalities after palate repair and cleft-lip, a consequence that would result in a malpractice suit in many developed countries (Malay, 2017).

Moreover, many of the STMMs have no standards of evaluating their performance and might not have formal problem-solving methods as well as procedures for improvement. Therefore, a way to assess short-term medical missions (STMMs) is an essential and required step for improvement of quality in the area of universal healthcare.

In the present form, there are some limitations concerning the STMMs evaluation tool because of the lack of standard measures and techniques. Therefore, the measurement of STMMs performance is reliant on mission directors to appraise these missions. However, this is a source of probable bias because they are frequently invested both personally and professionally in the accomplishment of their undertakings (Morales et al., 2019).

Besides, many participants are personally associated with their mission groups, mainly via schools, religious connections, and workplaces. Such a sense of camaraderie might make it tricky to assess the mission impartially. Moreover, many medical missionaries work in short-term missions for charitable purposes. Therefore, such exceptional objectives directed towards underprivileged communities can result in the delusion that in resource-poor settings, and care is good quality healthcare, despite the quality of service.

Short-term medical sustainability is often associated with numerous demerits that hinder its effectiveness in the long run. For instance, when there is an outbreak of a given infection that deserves special attention like the current Coronavirus, the implementation of short-term strategies barely helps in curbing the spread of the illness.

In this case, long-term measures are the sustainable approaches towards handling such incidences because of their adverse effects on the society. Basically, such scenarios require long-term medical sustainability strategies as opposed to short ones. The reason behind the argument is because of the former amasses numerous benefits than the latter. Indeed, it entails the implementation of strategic planning in health care, which further requires medical personnel to come up with clear goals for strategic health care planning. The ultimate goals are coming up with sustainable strategies that are capable of remedying the current situation contrary to short-term ones as they are crucial in achieving success in the long run.

There is a significant difference between the health care system of developed and developing countries. Most importantly, the variation can be attributed to the dissimilarity in the manner the duo handles health care issues as industrialized nations have embraced long-term sustainability measures.

Medical sustainability is one of the ultimate goals of a country. The reason for the argument is because it has countless benefits, such as improving economic growth due to the heightened availability of labor. Markedly, the provision of enhanced medical services reduces the mortality rate. Labor is a fundamental factor of production; it contributes towards improved productivity and the overall gross domestic product of a country. The merit can only be reaped through long-term sustainability measures.

The popularity of short-term medical sustainability measures has also been on the rise in the recent past. Most countries appreciate the importance of STMS as a vehicle or tool for extending access to health care to developing countries. STMS is appealing in nature to physicians as well as other medical professionals because of the integration of philanthropy and direct approach to patient care. Medical missions refer to the process through which doctors and clinical personnel travel to foreign nations with the ultimate goal of undertaking special research and studies on a short-term duration basis.

The mission is a combination of broad services philanthropy and a direct approach to patient care (Melby et al. 2014). The process of implementing STMS plays aces various challenges such as poor relations with the local physicians, which hinder the attainment of its objectives. Moreover, the lack of sustainability can also hinder the positive or good intentions of the missions. Basically, sustainability, in this case, refers to the ability to maintain the desirable aspects of an undertaking while minimizing the undesirable effects. It is one of the major aspects that contribute to the success of STMS. A sustainable medical system should promote the three pillars of sustainability; they include enhancing the benefits of financial, social, and environmental impacts.

The realization of the benefits associated with STMS has significantly contributed to its popularity. The increased usage of the STMS has been attributed to increased global communication and heightened awareness of the insufficient healthcare services in developing countries. Most importantly, STMS help to maximize patients' safety and quality control in the health sector. STMS is facing a lot of criticisms as some people argue that they accrue positive implications, while others feel that they yield negative effects. Some of the undesirable effects of STMS include the administration of unsafe practices as well as failure to give thorough consideration of the cultural difference.

Ideally, the culture of clinical officers undertaking the medical missions might clash with that of the host country (Caldron et al. 2015). The STMS needs to factor the dissimilarity in cultures in order to avoid its undesirable effects. As thus, there is a dire need for enhanced awareness and planning for medical missions in order to ensure that their positive outcomes are maximized. It is crucial for team members to realize the potential pitfalls while undertaking STMS in order to minimize their undesirable effects.

Quality health is achieved, trough the implementation of STMS. Indeed, sustainability is becoming a vital factor in the health care sector. Its benefits reveal that the future of health care is civilization. Sustainability plays a crucial role in the transformation of health care provisions. Indeed, medical missions are crucial for promoting the health care sector in developing countries. It helps in transferring medical knowledge from industrialized nations to developing ones.

It is important to consider the drawbacks of the pitfalls associated with STMS while planning for a medical mission. Such a move contributes to increased awareness for the team of clinical officers deployed to foreign countries. It is worth noting that creating awareness is the first process of solving the challenges associated with short-term missions. It helps in ensuring that the planning stage is effectively strategized in order to eliminate risks and the undesirable effects that might hinder the effectiveness of the entire process (Suchdev et al. 2007). Notably, it is the role of top leaders in the managerial levels of the host country to ensure that health care providers undertake duties within their scope. They should also follow the safety guidelines in compliance with the health care ethical conduct practiced in the home and foreign countries.

The primary focus of short-term health missions is enhancing community health development. Examples of services offered through STMS include the provision of clean water, safe disposal of human waste through campaigning for the construction of pit latrines, nutrition, immunizations, sexual abstinence or loyalty, healthy practices like washing hands, and protection from disease-carrying pests and other infection-causing agents that can be controlled.

The missions are also responsible for educating the community on issues that are likely to improve their livelihood by advocating for a healthy society (Berry, 2014). It entails the provision of direct health education to members of the society during the mission visits. The effectiveness of STMS is enhanced by the ability of local nurses to work in conjunction with the foreign clinical officers in order to meet the stated needs of a healthy society sustainably. Christian missionaries have been on the frontline in promoting successful of STMS. The missionaries have been collaborating with government officials in the provision of health care facilities.

In brief, STMS missions are characterized by a grouping of healthcare providers visiting an overseas land for reasons of undertaking a specific study and treatments for a short duration of time. Such an extensive definition covers a broad array of services that range from surgical mission offering treatment. As the number of STMMs rises, substantial human and financial resources are spent on offering these services. Therefore, it is likely for most of the people that get this help judge the STMMs on the face value without having a detailed analysis of their practices and possible harms that they bring.

Short-term medical sustainability is often associated with numerous demerits that hinder...