Importance of Health - Essay Example

? IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH (An essay on nursing) of (affiliation) Introduction The health of everyone is the concern and responsibility of that particular person and is also the responsibility of family members, society, and the government in terms of is formulation and implementation of public health policies. A healthy society is a productive society, while on the other hand, people who are sickly are not very productive and prove a hindrance to further economic development because their treatment and care require scarce personal and government resources which could have been deployed or used more productively in other endeavors. In the overall scheme of things, a healthy life should be the objective of everybody so each person can attain his or her full potential and enjoy life to the fullest until the very end. Health care today is expensive in most developed countries such as the United States of America because it is mostly performed by private entities which have a profit motive in order to stay in business, while in other countries, their governments have public health programs which are comparable to or even better than those offered in private hospitals and medical institutions. Whether it is private or public, health care is an economic and social issue because of the scarcity in personal or government financial resources. Any day spent in a hospital also marks a day off from work that results in lost productivity; to stay healthy is to be helpful to society at large. However, in any free-market capitalist society in which health care is expensive, there will always be sectors which prove vulnerable to the vagaries and costs of health care insurance. Some members of vulnerable sectors include children, certain groups of men and women, and its senior citizens who may not be able to afford health care and therefore lack access to it. Nursing as a profession can help to alleviate their plight and promote overall community health. Discussion A healthy citizenry is the primary aim of any government public health program. On the other hand, there are many resource constraints which can prevent the government from giving a much-needed help for health care to everyone of its citizens. This paper discusses the many ways by which the nursing profession can also do its part as a crucial member of the health care team. It is always a good mindset to not rely on the government in all instances, such as in health care. There are clearly limits to what the government can do, given its limited budget and also the very bureaucratic nature of governance; help may not be forthcoming at all or it might get delayed. In particular, this paper looks at how changing demographics has increased the number of elderly citizens in most countries today. This group of people is the most vulnerable of all, in terms of access to health care, financial resources, and the onset of many age-related ailments or diseases. Older or senior citizens therefore require special attention because of these factors. The overall aging (graying) of society is not confined to just a few countries. Advances in medical or scientific knowledge also contributed to longer lifespans, so there are now more older people. Most senior citizens are parents and grandparents, with families of their own and many offspring who love them for their warmth, wisdom, and accumulated knowledge. Their impact on the overall community is their presence gives younger people and families a certain sense of importance and continuity in terms of inter-generational relationships. The importance of them staying healthy is that the community can exert effort on more productive activities and not get tied down to caring for them and spending financial resources for their medication and treatment. To stay healthy is to save precious dollars which impacts positively on the whole community. The primary responsibility for senior group health is on the members of their own family who have to take care of them and provide for their material and financial needs. Children of the senior citizens should give them adequate attention such as making homes safe against accidents or falls which is the second-leading cause of accidental deaths among senior adults (second only to motor vehicle accidents such as collisions and crashes), monitor their diet and maintenance medications, encourage them to have physical exercise regularly, be alert for the first signs ever of any age-related mental ailments like Alzheimer's or dementia, and in general, look after them. Most accidental falls are due to poor eyesight when older people misjudge the depth or distance of the ground or the floor when walking and causing them to lose their balance (Gross, 2008, para. 9) which in turn cause bruises, dislocations, or even bone fractures. Family members should have their vision checked and provide them with eyeglasses or contact lenses. Hallways, bathrooms and the stairs should have hand grips installed in them for elderly parent to hold unto and avoid the falls. Floor surfaces should be checked if these are all even and there are no loose tiles or any slippery items on them such as toys or any carelessly thrown candy wrappers. If the family can afford it, then it is better to have surveillance cameras installed such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) so elderly people are easily monitored if something bad will happen to them (Holliday, 1989, p. 35) and urgent help can be extended right away. The government is secondarily liable for its senior citizens as a debt of gratitude for the people who had spent the best years of their lives serving society and government. Good public policy mandates the government to maintain adequate health centers for the elderly, provide assistance through Medicare, and health seminars for these seniors (Gebbie et al., 2003, p. 10). Many members belonging to this age group of senior adults are poor due to having retired already for quite some time and are low on funds due to their small savings or pensions. It puts them at risk of no access to health care because some of them cannot afford their health care insurance premiums. The recent Federal government shutdown illustrates the importance of how nursing professionals can help this vulnerable group of poor and uninsured senior citizens. Nurses can help seniors with paperwork on how to apply for Obamacare (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of March 23, 2010 or PPACA); the insurance premiums are now made more affordable for them and they need someone to guide them in their application process. All nurses must educate senior citizens on Medicare; for example, on how to get free preventive care and lower costs on prescription drugs or wider prescription drug coverage (Wofford, 2013, para. 5). Seniors who are retired need more financial and emotional assistance, because it is at this age when they are most vulnerable, with no regular source of income but now with many age-related ailments. Nursing care should be focused on this vulnerable group. Conclusion The nursing process consists of five stages, namely: assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation (feedback if effective or not). With this in mind, the level of care should be suited to the physical and mental state of a particular patient in the senior age group. In actual practice of rendering health care, nurses must always observe the ethics of nursing care; it gives importance to respecting the individual patient, taking into account his or her options with regards to medical or nursing care, like avoiding racial or ethnic discrimination. However, a new paradigm in nursing requires men and women are to be treated different (Rachels, 2011, p. 151). The levels of care in geriatrics should emphasize good diet, regular physical exercise, knowledge of nutrition, healthy lifestyle practices, cessation of smoking and drinking, taking of vitamin supplements, to have a positive outlook in life, and to have emotional and spiritual fortitude. The aim of nursing is to maintain well-being by prevention of injuries and avoidance of illnesses. References Gebbie, K. M., Rosenstock, L. & Hernandez, L. M. (2003). Who will keep the public healthy? Educating public health professionals for the 21st century. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Gross, Jane. (2008, September 11). “Caring and coping: Catching seniors before they fall.” The New York Times. Retrieved on October 18, 2013 from . Holliday, P. J. (1989). Accidental Falls of Elderly People. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: Abe Books Incorporated. Rachels, J. (2011). The elements of moral philosophy. Columbus, OH: McGraw- Hill Publications. Wofford, C. (2013, September 16). “Americans must get the facts straight on Obamacare exchanges: Obamacare Facts are Stubborn Things.” U. S. News & World Report. Retrieved on October 20, 2013 from http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/carrie-wofford/2013/09/16/americans-must-get-the-facts-straight-on-obamacare-exchanges Read More