Investigating the Public Health Policy in Manitoba - Research Paper Example

1 Investigating the Public Health Policy in Manitoba A Graduate Scholarly Paper (if applicable) James Kone (your name) Vantage University (your college) 2 Introduction This research paper looks at the Public Health Policies in Manitoba, most especially in the area of injury. It describes the history and the complexity of Public Health in Manitoba, with a great emphasis on the population mostly affected, the social, political and environmental issues concerning health policies in the area. Some of the applicable ethics are investigated, with the viewing to explaining why there are gaps, problems and lapses in the existing health policies in Manitoba. Much information is given about the political action strategy employed to address these health problems. The Public Health Policies in Manitoba have come under severe scrutiny in recent years because of some challenges they pose to the plan of Manitoba Provincial Government to provide all citizens good and affordable public health services with the establishment of Manitoba Public Health Division (MPHD, 2010). 3 History of Public Health in Manitoba The Manitoba Public Health Division is the department that takes charge of all public health services in the Province of Manitoba, ably established by the Public Health Act. This section of the Manitoba government handles all issues pertaining to sanitation, community health and services, public safety, sanitation and environment etc. Injury epidemiology has been recognized as one of the major causes of death in Manitoba, causing approximately 7 percent of Manitoba’s death in 2001. From 1992 to 1999, the number of Manitobans that died from sundry injuries totaled 125, 619 (MPHD, 2004). It is alarming that injuries are frequently responsible for the death of Manitoban males from age 1 to 54 and of Manitoban female from 1 to 24. In 2001 alone, injuries were responsible for the 70 percent of death for Manitobans between the age 15 and 24 (MPHD, 2004). There have been some nursing researches on injuries in accordance with the requirements of Manitoba’s Provincial Injury Prevention Strategy –a task force system set up by Manitoba Public Health Division to arrest the wave of injuries affecting the citizens of the Province. Nurses are encouraged to observe, analyze, treat and report instances of injuries, as their profession required. They are urged to do this with children, particularly, because undetected injuries in kids can quickly lead to their death (Thomas et al., 2007). 4 Socio-Political Factors Responsible for these Injury Problems It has been discovered that a large proportion of injuries that occurred to Manitobans come from violence at home, motor vehicle traffic, fire arms, fire and burn, and at the workplaces (MPHD, 2004). One could link this scenario of injuries at the workplace to the failure of the government’s labor agencies to successfully reduce workplace fatalities. Fewer environmental factors have been identified as causes of injuries: these include but not limited to hurricanes, typhoon, excessive snow and so on. Man-made accidents from car, motorcycle and bicycle crashes are some of the major causes of injuries in Manitoba. However, it is possible to state that slow political processes in ensuring that the appropriate nursing programs and care are set up so that those who might have been injured may receive appropriate treatment. This would have reduced the number of deaths recorded each year, and it would have improved the quality of nursing services given in Manitoba Province (Newhouse et al., 2006). Existing Nursing Services in Manitoba and their Challenges Currently, Manitobans receive different kinds of nursing services in conjunction with the Manitoba’s Provincial Injury Prevention Strategy established by Manitoba Public Health Division. Some of these services include the usual hygiene, mental and developmental cares, family support services, health and clinical services, nursing home services, infection control nursing services, and fires and burns treatment (MPHD, 2010). However, the 5 different financial statuses of Manitobans as well as the few numbers of hospitals make nursing services inaccessible to those who badly need them (Ahrens, 2005). The Manitoban nurses have enviable records of conforming with the nursing ethical records, however, poor funding and lack of incentives from the Provincial Government have made Manitoban nurses to improvise when they attend to their injury patients. The nursing management is the pivotal area that the Manitoban government must work on in order to guarantee that the standard of nursing services are not compromised (Smith, 2007). The main implications of under-funding nursing activities are that it may lead to inefficiency on the part of the nurses, and the general public would be denied high-quality treatment. When the professionals are not encouraged to be abreast of all knowledge in their chosen field, such a practice would cause a state of mediocrity (Bottorff, 2006). Clients (patients) would always want to go to where quality clinical services are guaranteed. This may cause over-crowding at such hospitals. Generally, it is unhelpful for nursing practice if only a handful of patients could have access to clinical services while the majority of those who need help could not make it to the hospitals; maybe because they do not have health insurance or there are shortages of nurses in those hospitals. Hence, Manitoban nurses would face a dilemma of concentrating only on the same demographics, an issue that could rob them of vital exposure to various patients and their peculiar ways of reacting to medical treatment (Stephens-Lee, 2007). The Manitoban Provincial Government needs to do more in encouraging a culture of nursing research and guarantee that outcomes 6 from the researches would be properly implemented to improve the quality of nursing services in the Province. Hence, the next issue to be discussed in this paper is the use of political action strategy. Political Strategy Action Several indications are pointing to the undeniable fact that the problem of under-funding nursing services in Manitoba Province to comprehensively dealing with the issue of injuries is purely political. Hospital administration has often fallen under the control of medical director/chief medical officer—who are politically manipulated by the politicians. Provincial governments in Canada have been largely responsible for making policies that affect the situations of things at the hospitals. Recent studies have demonstrated that the effect of politics on the efficiency of local hospitals is increasing yearly as public hospitals have to lobby for the increment in their annual allocation in the state budget. This dependency nature of the hospital will surely deter the hospitals and the nurses working in them to act to the best of their abilities (Tjerbo, 2009). So, for the hospitals in Manitoba Province to perform at their optimal level, there must be reorganization in them. That is, new and more efficient policies have to be draw up to address the incessant rate of injuries in the province and the ensuing casualties. Below are some steps required to fashion out proactive policies for public health institutions (Jones et al., 2010): Step one: The very first step is identifying the sources or areas where the effect of the problem is felt the most. For instance, people in the age bracket of 15 to 24 die the most 7 from injuries. Questions about the possible cause of the injuries may be asked: and how are the victims rescued when they are found in such a pitying situation? Here, it will be possible to understand the causes, the reasons for its occurrence, then the possible solution. Step two: Offering the appropriate recommendations for dealing with the problem of injuries: these recommendations could include but not limited to employing wardens to stand by the road sides and help save vehicle traffic victims, or dispatch risk managers to companies and teach them about workplace injuries etc. This policy would bring public awareness to the issue of injuries (Bullard, 1999). And mobile ambulance could be stationed at the strategic areas of the region to quickly whisk away injured people to the hospital for immediate attention. Step three: Countering the opposition to the public health proposals: it is natural that some elements in the political or the medical class would like to fight against any new public health ideas. This step is very helpful in countering such actions by enlightening the opposition about the need to accept the reforms that are surely would help Manitoba Public Health programs succeed; most especially the ones dealing with injuries of all kinds that have been taking away the lives of some Manitobans. Once the step three has been done successfully, then the last step is very important to determining the workability of whatever policy that the Province may have adopted. Step four could be considered as the quality assessment and control step, because experts would be on the ground to assess the success 8 of these public health programs in curbing the rate of people dying by injuries and.or offer some advice for better implementation (Storch, 2005). When all these steps have been concluded, the place of nurses in this scenario is to work with all other hospital personnel in ensuring that lives are saved. The nurses could be part of the mobile ambulance; some of the nurses could be hired as wardens to man the streets to help accident victims and/or report quickly to the police in case there is one. 9 References Ahrens, T. (2005). Evidence-based practice: priorities and implementation strategies. AACN Clinical Issues, 16, 36-42. Bottorff, J.L. (2006). Risk and safety: the current landscape in health promotion and health care. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 38, 5-7. Bullard, M.J. (1999). Mannitol in head injuries. Canadian Journal of Emergency Journal, 1, 104-106. Jones, B.H., Canham-Chervak, M., & Sleet, D.A. (2010). An evidence-based public health approach to injury priorities and prevention recommendations for the US Military. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 38, S1-10. Stephens-Lee, C. (2007). Identifying and categorizing health information system gap. Canadian Nursing Informatics Journal, 2, 33-48. Newhouse, R.., Pettit, J.C., Poe, S., & Rocco, L. (2006). The slippery slope: differentiating between quality improvement and research. Applied Nursing Research, 36, 211-219 Manitoba Public Health Division (2004). Injuries in Manitoba: a 10-year review. Manitoba Public Health Division, Canada. Retrieved from http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthyliving/docs/injuriesmb.pdf Manitoba Public Health Division (2010). Leading Causes of Injury in Manitoba. Manitoba Public Health Division, Canada. Retrieved from http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthyliving/injury/causes.html Smith, P. (2007). Promoting nurse research. Nurse Manage, 14, 28-31. Storch, J.L. (2005). Patient safety: Is it just another bandwagon? Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership, 18, 39-55. Thomas, K., VanOyen , F. M., Rasmussen, D., Dodd, D., Whildin, S. (2007). Rapid respond team: challenges, solutions, benefits. Critical Care Nurse, 27, 20-27. Tjerbo, T. (2009). The politics of local hospital reform: a case study of hospital reorganization following the 2002 Norwegian hospital reform. 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