Nursing Services in Australia - Term Paper Example

Running Header: Nursing Services in Australia Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Over years, nursing as one of the professions in the health care sector has been faced with a lot of challenges. This is because as professionals, nurses are expected to deal with diverse needs of their clients. This requires high level of competence, dedication and understanding of individual background. Nursing care in many occasions is being confused with health care. However, nursing care is quite different from health case based on their scope of activities, practice and training. Being one the professions operating in the health care sector, nursing care is very instrumental in that individuals are able to recover to their optimum health and stable life by providing appropriate care (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council 2002). Despite working under certain authorities like doctors and physicians, the nurses are charged with the responsibility of building and maintaining the image of the nursing profession in the eyes of the public depending on the ways in which they deal various clients who are defined by the needs of their quotas such as age, religion and society as well as gender. The nursing care Australia is specialized in providing general health care, critical care, mental care and midwifery as well as aged care to the public through various health facilities across the country. From this ground therefore, this essay is on the mission to establish the nursing care Australia’s competence to deal with diverse health needs of a highly cultural diverse country like age, religion and society and how gender has influenced the nursing profession in the country. Age and nursing care Australia In Australia, it is approximated that about 20% of the country’s total population is aged 70 years and above. In an ideal situation, 20% is a big number. More than a half of this population is cared for in their homes while the rest are cared for in the nursing homes, hostels or by use of Community Aged Care Packages. However, this kind of group in the society has not received much attention by the nursing professionals because of the view they hold about this work. Because of the constraints in terms of resources from the federal government, the carers for the aged in the society have been sourced from various groups a alongside the nursing profession. Currently people dealing in providing nursing care for the aged include the registered nurses, enrolled nurses and unlicensed personal care individuals (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council 2002). Despite the shortage in the number of nurses caring for the aged in the society, many of the registered nurses have continued to pursue different fields in nursing. To qualify for registration as a nurse in the country, one must have attained a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Even though gerontology training is being offered by various nursing institutions in the countries, still very view nurses have considered undertaking the course. This is because this area of nursing is considered as of the low status nursing fields (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council 2006). Religion and nursing care in Australia Australia like many other countries has people from various religions alongside Christianity. The different religions seem to read from different scripts and they have different views about health care and how sick people should be perceived or treated. The diversity in the religious believes are a very complex issue to the health sector in Australia. This is because each religion believes differently to health care. This kind of situation prompts the nursing profession to learn more and try to incorporate various believes in their provision for health care so as to accommodate various religions. The Muslim community for instance believes that the body of an individual is given to someone because of God’s trust in an individual and that careless treatment of the body especially by use of alcohol and any substance is highly forbidden. Smoking is also is forbidden because it contains harmful circumstances (Baluff 2004). The other believes that has also been so conspicuous with the Muslim community, is that before any prayer, ablution is mandatory and that individuals must wash their hands, feet, arms and face. Further, sexuality among the Muslims is considered as a gift from God and it should be practiced legitimately. Interesting of it all about the Muslim believe in health, is that illness is treated as a trial from God and that survival is depended on an individual (Saeed and Shahram 2001). Praying and searching for medical treatment according to the Muslims, go hand in hand and that no single individual can be healed irrespective of the medical attention given. The Muslims also believe that in some occasions, an individual is allowed to take even forbidden products as long they can help him heal and if no alternatives are available. For example when the insulin was not available, the Muslims could take the pig-derived insulin. When providing, health care, the Muslims also believe that health care should be always be holistic and must vary according to each culture. Muslims believing in knowing the whole truth as to what has caused one’s death and also in playing five times a day (Balboni et al 2007). These are just but a few mentions of those religious believe that have subjected the nursing profession into a very difficult situation. Despite these challenging tasks for the nurses in Australia, it is emerging that competence and living up to the task by the nurses is on the rise. First and foremost, the nurses are of the view that caring, listening to and empathizing as well as responding to individual problem, is paramount to meeting individual needs (Saeed and Shahram 2001). This is part of Australia’s Code of Professional Conduct which requires practicing nurses to uphold high level of integrity and professionalism in their work. The code of conduct demands that all registered nurses in the country must ensure safety and competence of all patients. Finally, the Australian nurses are aware that for it to be easy to achieve wholeness in the profession, understanding and valuing individual practices and believes is key (Baluff 2004). Society and nursing care Australia Australia is very diverse in culture. This is as a result of the migration of both the English-speaking and non-English speakers 200 years ago. The census of 1996 had revealed that 23.3% of Australian population was born overseas. During the same year, the population that does speak English has risen by 31%. An attempt to classify the Australians in terms if race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, language, class and culture in multicultural community may greatly work on the advantage of the dominant and the most powerful in the society (Shu et al1996). This is because the indigenous, the blacks, non-English speakers, ethnic and lower socio-economical class may be disadvantaged and fail to access good health care and other nursing services. These social parameters have had very serious implication in Australian society and the nursing practice as well as key stakeholders in the sector in trying to provide nursing services. With this regard therefore, in the way to ensuring adequate nursing services in transcultural community adequate education has been considered paramount. This is because it will be easy to have the nursing professionals who can speak in different languages and understand the cultures of various societies. This is the reason as to the Royal College of Nursing is convinced that the nursing profession must entail culture, empowering and create meaning to culture in order to meet the diverse and very divergent health needs (National Multicultural Advisory Council 1999). Gender and nursing care Australia According to Carol Reid (2009), gender parity in the nursing profession in Australia stands at 9% to 91% in favor of women. This is to imply that the country’s nursing profession is dominated by women. This is because of long and wrong perception of the society that this profession is suited for women. This kind of workforce structure has continued to impact negatively on the image of the nursing care in Australia. Despite being capable to offer the best in nursing services like their women counterparts (Buchanan & Considine 2002). What this means to the Australian nursing care is that the profession has been compromised and lowered and the end result being lack of diversity and gender balance among the workforce. While presenting some of the needs by different cultures and religions, Saeed (2003), had argued that privacy is key among the Muslims. This scenario now creates the question, “who is to provide nursing services to male patients, in case there is shortage of male nurses?” with this regard, it is becoming increasingly very difficult to meet the needs of the multicultural society. This is because some of the cultures and religions demand that individuals be served by nurses of the same gender (Loma Linda University Hospital Medical Center 2006). Conclusion The objective of this assessment as identified earlier in the introduction was to establish how nurses in Australia have reacted to age, religion and society and how gender has influenced nursing care in Australia. First, caring for the aged among the society is yet to receive positive reaction from the nurses who perceive it as low status nursing job. Second, Australia is a multicultural society divided by ethnicity, religion, language, race and class. To serve the society well therefore, the nursing professionals are going for further education to increase their competence. Finally, gender disparity is big and that men are few in number and thereby making it difficult to deal to specific issues of men especially on privacy. In general, age, religion and society issues have played a very big role in reforming the nursing profession in the country. References Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (2002). National Competency Standards for the Enrolled Nurse. Canberra: ANMC. Available at: www.anmc.org.au. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (2006). National Competency Standards for the Registered Nurse. Canberra: ANMC. Available at: www.anmc.org.au. Buchanan J. & Considine G. (2002). Stop telling us to cope!. NSW nurses explain why they are leaving the profession. A report for the NSW Nurses’ Association. University of Melbourne, May 2002. Balboni, T., Vanderwerker, L., Block, S., Paulk, E., Lathan, C., & Peteet, J.et al. (2007). Religiousness and Spiritual Support Among Advanced Cancer Patients and Associations With End-of-Life Treatment Preferences and Quality of Life. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 25, p. 555-560. Baluff, J. (2004). The Morality of Refusing Medical Treatments. Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Canberra, Australia. International Council of Nurses. (2006). Code of Ethics for Nurses. ICN, Geneva. Available at: www.icn.ch. Loma Linda University Hospital Medical Center (2006). Employee Spiritual Care and Wholeness Department. Health Care and Religious Beliefs, Australia. Shu, J., Goldlus G., McKenzie, F., Struik, AK. (1996). Australia’s population trends and prospects 1995. Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research, AGPS, Canberra. National Multicultural Advisory Council. (1999). Australian Multiculturalism for a new century: Towards inclusiveness. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia. Saeed, Abdullah. (2003). Islam in Australia, Sydney: Allen and Unwin. Saeed, A., and Shahram, A. (2001). Muslim Communities in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press. Read More