Historical And Socio-Cultural Factors Influencing Australia's Healthcare System
Australia’s healthcare system has been affected by a variety of historical, political and socio-cultural factors. Healthcare is described as especially trained and licenced professionals who work to “maintain or restore physical, mental or emotional well-being” (Merriam-Webster, 2017). With that in mind this essay identifies a historical influence, specifically biomedical approach, and a cultural influence, such as cultural competency and describes how each have shaped Australia’s healthcare system. The impact that biomedical approach, which originated from a germ theory of disease put together by Louis Pasteur (Johnson, 2012), has had on Australia’s healthcare system is the first major influence that this essay seeks to describe and identify.
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The biomedical approach in healthcare and medicine is described as investigating a disease or illness through the physical or biological aspects in order to form a diagnosis and how to cure or treat the disease or illness (jkonoroth, 2013).
As is stated by Taralgon College (2012), biomedical approaches rely on the use of technology heavily, in order to treat and diagnose diseases. On top of this it also only starts to deal with the disease once it has been identified. It had a drastic impact on the medical field, resulting in the introduction of computers into medical centres, which allowed for easier information storage such as patient details and disease symptoms. However, the medical field is still described as lacking in its’ technological advances even with the large advances in the last thirty years it still lags behind every other global sector (Shortliffe & Marsden, 2014). Biomedical approaches have been altering and growing over the years resulting in mass improvements in fields of medicine such as medical science, technology as well as an increase in the number of cures and treatments respectively (jkonoroth, 2013). This can be seen in the large amount of vaccinations available at Medicare centres today. A good example of this influencing today’s culture can be seen in the World Health Organisation’s successful attempt …show more content…
at creating vaccines for an extremely deadly virus, known as Ebola, which recently swept through central Africa (Jašarević, 2015). This approach has been dominant for many years and has played a large role in prolonging patients’ life expectancy following a disease onset. The following is a list of examples which have arisen or been created due to the use of the biomedical approach: X-rays, scans, blood tests, ultrasounds, mammograms, pap smear tests, prescription medicine, surgery and hospitalisation. If one of those wasn’t invented, a lot more patients would have been lost, but with the implementation of the biomedical approach these were all made possible and have been invented and used in order to preserve life for years. The main idea that can be taken away from this approach is that without it nurses and doctors alike would find it a lot harder to care for patients and it would also take longer to identify the disease or illness associated with each patient. The biomedical approach is an integral part of the history of medicine and although most Medicare centres are slowly moving away from it, it is hard to argue against its positive affect on healthcare. Defined as the ability of providers and organisations in order to deliver effective healthcare services in order to meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of (indigenous) patients (Georgetown University, 2014); cultural competency has been a long-standing issue within healthcare systems as a large portion of the population, especially those indigenous to their respectful countries are unable to afford appropriate healthcare.
A study conducted by authors of the International Journal for Quality in Heath Care found five interventions and evaluations aiming to increase cultural competency for Australian Indigenous individuals and within these it was identified that the main strategies were education and training of the health workforce, culturally specific health programs, and recruitment of an Indigenous health workforce. This set of strategies resulted in an improvement in health professional confidence and increased Indigenous patient satisfaction with healthcare access (Clifford et al, 2015). A study conducted on a group of nursing students following the competition of an Indigenous health subject was designed in order to collect the group’s idea of the healthcare and its issues regarding the Indigenous people of Australia. The subject was designed in order for the students in order to develop and awareness on this. The study found that there was a large increase in the amount of attitudinal change towards indigenous Australians’ following the class with a large
increase in willingness to work with Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders (Hunt et al, 2015). With the growing need for healthcare for Indigenous Australians, these interventions are proving to be extremely important to the healthcare system of Australia. These interventions are proving to be effective in allowing people, specifically those working in healthcare sectors, in order to work with and understand Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. Increasing the knowledge of healthcare professionals allows them to fight for what they believe is right in order to allow for more appropriate fees for the Indigenous and more appropriate care as well. Information gather from the Department of Health (2012) states that one of the priority reform areas is that of a culturally competent workforce as the department continues in order to attempt to close the gap in outcomes for Indigenous life. It has been deemed essential that the development of systematic, individual, and organisational cultural competence continues as this ensures that Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander are treated in a safe and respectful manner that allows for a trustworthy bond to form between the Indigenous and the health services. The following is a list from the Department of Health (2012), which they have deemed effective characteristics of culturally competent care, specifically in maternity care: “physical environment and infrastructure, specific Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander program, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce, continuity of care and carer, collaborating with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations and other agencies, communication, information sharing and transfer of care, staff attitudes and respect, cultural education programs, relationships, informed choice and right of refusal, tools in order to measure cultural competence, culture specific guidelines, culturally appropriate and effective health promotion and behaviour change activities, engaging consumers and clinical governance .” This list, which shares necessary components of appropriate communication with a patient, is an integral part of a culturally competent health services environment and, although this information has been gathered in order to describe what is necessary for maternity it is a model which can be applied in every healthcare setting with every Indigenous Australian. These guidelines have resulted in renewed information gathering, specifically for registered nurses, in order to allow for a better understanding of cultural competence. The biomedical approach allowed for an introduction of new technology, which allowed for an increasingly fast evolution of the healthcare system, thus leading to an increasingly effective ability to identify diseases and illnesses and the correct methods in order to deal with these issues. This allowed for registered nurses to identify and pursue the correct course of action in order to improve/preserve the life of a patient with little intervention of the doctor besides their confirmation. Cultural competence resulted in mass changes, both in learning institutions and health care services with the idea that future and current health care professionals would form a better understanding of Indigenous Australians in the hope that their willingness to work with them would increase. These changes also included an attempted introduction of more Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the health care sector of the workforce as this would result in more Indigenous seeking medical attention and improve other health care professionals’ attitudes and views of the Indigenous.
The biomedical approach in healthcare and medicine is described as investigating a disease or illness through the physical or biological aspects in order to form a diagnosis and how to cure or treat the disease or illness (jkonoroth, 2013).
As is stated by Taralgon College (2012), biomedical approaches rely on the use of technology heavily, in order to treat and diagnose diseases. On top of this it also only starts to deal with the disease once it has been identified. It had a drastic impact on the medical field, resulting in the introduction of computers into medical centres, which allowed for easier information storage such as patient details and disease symptoms. However, the medical field is still described as lacking in its’ technological advances even with the large advances in the last thirty years it still lags behind every other global sector (Shortliffe & Marsden, 2014). Biomedical approaches have been altering and growing over the years resulting in mass improvements in fields of medicine such as medical science, technology as well as an increase in the number of cures and treatments respectively (jkonoroth, 2013). This can be seen in the large amount of vaccinations available at Medicare centres today. A good example of this influencing today’s culture can be seen in the World Health Organisation’s successful attempt …show more content…
at creating vaccines for an extremely deadly virus, known as Ebola, which recently swept through central Africa (Jašarević, 2015). This approach has been dominant for many years and has played a large role in prolonging patients’ life expectancy following a disease onset. The following is a list of examples which have arisen or been created due to the use of the biomedical approach: X-rays, scans, blood tests, ultrasounds, mammograms, pap smear tests, prescription medicine, surgery and hospitalisation. If one of those wasn’t invented, a lot more patients would have been lost, but with the implementation of the biomedical approach these were all made possible and have been invented and used in order to preserve life for years. The main idea that can be taken away from this approach is that without it nurses and doctors alike would find it a lot harder to care for patients and it would also take longer to identify the disease or illness associated with each patient. The biomedical approach is an integral part of the history of medicine and although most Medicare centres are slowly moving away from it, it is hard to argue against its positive affect on healthcare. Defined as the ability of providers and organisations in order to deliver effective healthcare services in order to meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of (indigenous) patients (Georgetown University, 2014); cultural competency has been a long-standing issue within healthcare systems as a large portion of the population, especially those indigenous to their respectful countries are unable to afford appropriate healthcare.
A study conducted by authors of the International Journal for Quality in Heath Care found five interventions and evaluations aiming to increase cultural competency for Australian Indigenous individuals and within these it was identified that the main strategies were education and training of the health workforce, culturally specific health programs, and recruitment of an Indigenous health workforce. This set of strategies resulted in an improvement in health professional confidence and increased Indigenous patient satisfaction with healthcare access (Clifford et al, 2015). A study conducted on a group of nursing students following the competition of an Indigenous health subject was designed in order to collect the group’s idea of the healthcare and its issues regarding the Indigenous people of Australia. The subject was designed in order for the students in order to develop and awareness on this. The study found that there was a large increase in the amount of attitudinal change towards indigenous Australians’ following the class with a large
increase in willingness to work with Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders (Hunt et al, 2015). With the growing need for healthcare for Indigenous Australians, these interventions are proving to be extremely important to the healthcare system of Australia. These interventions are proving to be effective in allowing people, specifically those working in healthcare sectors, in order to work with and understand Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. Increasing the knowledge of healthcare professionals allows them to fight for what they believe is right in order to allow for more appropriate fees for the Indigenous and more appropriate care as well. Information gather from the Department of Health (2012) states that one of the priority reform areas is that of a culturally competent workforce as the department continues in order to attempt to close the gap in outcomes for Indigenous life. It has been deemed essential that the development of systematic, individual, and organisational cultural competence continues as this ensures that Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander are treated in a safe and respectful manner that allows for a trustworthy bond to form between the Indigenous and the health services. The following is a list from the Department of Health (2012), which they have deemed effective characteristics of culturally competent care, specifically in maternity care: “physical environment and infrastructure, specific Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander program, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce, continuity of care and carer, collaborating with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations and other agencies, communication, information sharing and transfer of care, staff attitudes and respect, cultural education programs, relationships, informed choice and right of refusal, tools in order to measure cultural competence, culture specific guidelines, culturally appropriate and effective health promotion and behaviour change activities, engaging consumers and clinical governance .” This list, which shares necessary components of appropriate communication with a patient, is an integral part of a culturally competent health services environment and, although this information has been gathered in order to describe what is necessary for maternity it is a model which can be applied in every healthcare setting with every Indigenous Australian. These guidelines have resulted in renewed information gathering, specifically for registered nurses, in order to allow for a better understanding of cultural competence. The biomedical approach allowed for an introduction of new technology, which allowed for an increasingly fast evolution of the healthcare system, thus leading to an increasingly effective ability to identify diseases and illnesses and the correct methods in order to deal with these issues. This allowed for registered nurses to identify and pursue the correct course of action in order to improve/preserve the life of a patient with little intervention of the doctor besides their confirmation. Cultural competence resulted in mass changes, both in learning institutions and health care services with the idea that future and current health care professionals would form a better understanding of Indigenous Australians in the hope that their willingness to work with them would increase. These changes also included an attempted introduction of more Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders in the health care sector of the workforce as this would result in more Indigenous seeking medical attention and improve other health care professionals’ attitudes and views of the Indigenous.