Global Assessment of Haiti Part - Research Paper Example

? Global Assessment of Haiti Part 2 Summary of part findings The total geographical area of Haiti is estimated to be27, 750 square kilometers and the total population stands at ten million people (World Fact Book, 2013). The country was colonized by France and, therefore, they inherited the culture and lifestyle of the French. The poverty level of the country is relatively high to an extent where some citizens lack basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter. Lack of basic necessities has contributed to outbreak of malnutrition ailments among children. The moral of the country has been significantly reduced due to illegal trades like drug selling and prostitution among other immorality. Pneumonia and Influenza are the major diseases that cause a lot of deaths of the Haitian population (World Fact book, 2013). The country is vulnerable to environmental impacts like harsh climatic changes and stressors of the environment like hurricanes and earthquakes. The country has presidential system and the national assembly is bestowed with law making processes. Use of voodoo doctrines is part and parcel of the Haitian population and the whole population is strong believers of the Roman Catholic. Lack of proper planning possesses a lot of challenge to the health sector of this country; because of the poor organization, most of the health care management is conducted by NGOs like Cuban Brigade and other bodies like MSF. Because of the natural calamities like earthquakes, the free medical services offered by the government had to stop because the government became bank craft and could no longer provide for the needs of the population. The old generation and the youngsters are the most susceptible members of the society based on outbreak of diseases like cholera. The case of cholera has been epidemic due to the poor hygiene and sanitation in the country. The vivid impact of the health issues is death among the vulnerable population. Due to the escalation of the health standards in the country, many international bodies have decided to offer a helping hand and some of such bodies are Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and Partners in Health Organizations (PIH). These international bodies have embarked on vaccination programs against cholera to reduce its escalating effects. Another international body that has played a major role is UNICEF. This body has been engaged in vaccination programs to reduce the spread of cholera and other water-borne diseases. Haiti health concern with millennium development goals Some of the goals of the millennium development are eradication of extreme poverty rate and hunger, reduction of mortality rate among children below the age of five years, improvement of maternal health care, and combating HIV/AIDS and malaria diseases (Adam et al., 2006). Based on the findings of Haiti case, nearly all the millennium goals have not been met. Haitian population still suffers from poverty since most of them live below the poverty line and this therefore, means that the first goal of eradication of poverty by millennium development has not been achieved. The second goal is reduction of mortality rate among children below the age of five years and this goal has equally not been achieved because the most vulnerable people in the Haitian population are the children below the age of five years. The country can be said to be far away from achieving the millennium goals because of their poor health organization and failure to eradicate water-borne disease like cholera. For the country to attain these goals then a lot of changes should be done on the health sector. The government should be able to contain the health situation and it should be able to give provisions to basic medical requirements and also cleaning drinking water for the citizens. Without these changes then the country will still be far away from achieving the highlighted goals. Three levels of prevention Levels of prevention can be broadly classified into three categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary (CDC, 2011). In primary prevention measures the techniques applied include complete disease prevention through the use of vaccination (CDC, 2011). The secondary prevention measures tend to look at the various risks factors associated with the disease and eradication of similar risk factors. The third measure is tertiary method and this deals with optimization of the health after diagnosis of the disease (CDC, 2011). In the Haitian case, vaccination will be the most preferred primary prevention method. All the children and the other people should be vaccinated against epidemic disease like cholera and other water-borne diseases. The status of the sanitation should be improved to elimination spread of cholera. The risks that spread pneumonia and influenza should be identified and eliminated to reduce cases of death in the population. Pneumonia has been identified to be caused by extreme cold and therefore, use of warm bedding and clothing should be use by the residents to prevent pneumonia. The extreme cold also causes influenza and therefore same technique can be applied to eradicate it as well. For proper dealing with tertiary level, patients suffering from the two common diseases should devise means of managing their conditions. They should not expose themselves to cold conditions as this would enhance deterioration of their conditions. Most of the health cares should also have proper organization of their services to be able to combat the outbreaks of disease like cholera (Farmer et al., 2011) and other water-borne diseases. Potential and real challenges At the primary level some of the challenges that will be faced are lack of funds for the vaccination. The vaccination process requires a lot of funds for purchasing the vaccines and other medicine. Due to the poverty levels in the country majority of the population will not be able to afford this process. The government on the other hand, is equally unstable due to challenges imposed by natural calamities therefore; the achievement of this level will be a little bit tough. Poverty also possesses real challenge for the achievement of secondary prevention level. Elimination of the risks that are associated with the spreading of pneumonia and influenza requires use of some funds which at the moment is a real issue and therefore, the achievement of this level is equally challenging. Tertiary level requires development of management plans that can be used to control the diseases. Based on the earlier findings, most of the people that die from pneumonia and influenza are poor people. These people are therefore, not in a position to properly manage their conditions because management plans is associated with use of funds to purchase the required necessity. Most of these people cannot avoid purchases of such kind of necessities required for management planning. The health care on the other hand, lacks funds that they can use to properly organize themselves. Therefore, the achievement of tertiary prevention measures is still challenging. Global and local responsibility of nurses In the Haitian case, some of the local responsibilities of nurse are provisions of emergency medical care (Sloand & Groves, 2005). Cholera is epidemic and it kills very fast and, therefore, patients need quick attention from nurses whenever they are taken to hospitals. Nurses can also serve as mentors on some of the preventive measures that the patients need to undertake to stay safe from cholera and other water-borne diseases. Nurses should also provide first aid treatment to patients suffering from disease like cholera before the patients can see the doctor (Smith, 2004). Globally, nurses should be able to offer mobile medical care to cases of shortages. Nurses need to volunteer to offer their services at gratis to other patients all over the world (Sloand & Groves, 2005). This they can achieve through working with the NGOs and other bodies that offer help in needy situations like Haiti case. The second responsibility is the provisions of vaccination services to patients all over the world through collaboration with bodies like UNICEF and PIH. References Adam, W. et al. (2006). Millennium development goals for health. What will it take to Accelerate progress. In Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries. New York, NY: Oxford University press Center for Disease Control. (2011). Levels of disease prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/excite/skincancer/mod13.htm Farmer, P., Almazor, C.P., Bahnsen, E.T., Barry, D. & Bazile, J. (2011). Meeting Cholera’s Challenge to Haiti and the World. Prevention and Care Journal, 5 (5):45 Smith, A. (2004). Patient Advocacy: Roles for nurses and leaders. Nursing Economics, 22 (2): 88 Sloand, E. & Groves, S. (2005). A community-oriented primary care nursing model in an International setting that emphasizes partnerships. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 17 (2): 47-50 World fact book. (2013). Haiti. Retrieved from http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook Read More