Health Care Provided to Women and Children in Oman - Essay Example

Improving Healthcare Provided to Women and Children By Oman Ministry of Health Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Course Name Date of Submission Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 MoH Rational for Pursuing the Objective of Improving Healthcare for Women and Children 4 SWOT Analysis In Relation To How My Organization Is Positioned To Respond To This Objective 5 An Evaluation of the MoH’s Approach to Achieving the Objective 10 My Contribution as a Leader in Helping MoH Achieve its Objectives Successfully 15 Conclusion 18 References 18 Improving Healthcare Provided to Women and Children by Oman Ministry of Health Introduction Having a healthy population is critical for growth and development of any nation. Healthy population means productive workforce and less healthcare cost (Markus and Rosenbaum 2010, p. 54). Nevertheless, there has been an increase in health problems in different countries across the globe. Therefore, in a bid to maintain a healthy population, governments of different countries are doing everything they can to ensure the promotion of good health (Gadalla 1993, p. 23). Women and children, however, happens to be amongst the most vulnerable demographic. However, because of the important roles that women and children play in the society, promoting their good health is very critical (Alshishtawy 2010, p. 13; Armstrong and Deadman 2008, p. 33). Women and children are particularly a very important segment of the Oman population. In fact, women and children make the largest proportion of the Oman population. However, like in most countries, the Oman women and children are vulnerable to a number of health problems, including breast cancer, communicable diseases, malaria, HIV/AIDS, obesity, and heart problems just to name but a few. Therefore, in a bid to ensure the good health of women and children, the Oman government through the Ministry of Health has taken every step improve the healthcare provided to women and children (Al-Mandharia, Hassanb and Haranb 2004, p. 519; Markus 2007, p. 24). This report analyzes the measures that have been taken by the Ministry of Health towards improving the health and well-being of Oman women and children and the factors that impede the delivery of quality care to this demographic segment. MoH Rational for Pursuing the Objective of Improving Healthcare for Women and Children Oman has made a huge step towards achieving a universal healthcare for the entire population. Currently, about 98% of the Oman population has access to universal healthcare (Bin Said 2011, p. 190). This makes the country amongst the few countries that provide universal healthcare for the population at the point of use. However, the health of women and children has been a key priority area for the Ministry of Health (WHO 2010). The MoH has particularly focused much of its attention on promoting the health of women and children because of they form an important part of the population. Currently, women in the reproductive age make about 28.83% of the Oman population while about 7% of women are beyond their reproductive edge (Bin Said 2011, p. 190). However, according to the MoH, women beyond their reproductive edge face many health problems the majority of which start immediately they end their reproductive age. When the health problems sets in, the quality of life of these Oman women get affected, thus requiring specialized care, such as regular medical checkups to ensure early detection of health conditions, such as cervical and breast cancer, as well as osteoporosis disease among others (Curtiss 1999, p. 34). Therefore, to ensure good health and the wellbeing of women, the MoH is working hard to improve the health care services delivered to women. Like women, children are also an important section of the Oman population. The Oman government believes that the future of the country depends on the health and the wellbeing of its children (Alshishtawy 2010, p. 15). Unfortunately, children, like women, are a vulnerable population to diseases right from birth. Therefore, to ensure the wellbeing of children, the MoH is doing everything it can to improve the quality of healthcare services to children. SWOT Analysis In Relation To How My Organization Is Positioned To Respond To This Objective Strength The Oman MoH has a number of strengths that positions it to respond effectively to its objective of improving the quality of healthcare delivery to women and children. Strong financial muscle is the first major strength of the MoH that positions the organization to respond effectively to the health needs of women and children. In order to improve the quality of healthcare delivery to Oman women and children, the MoH must have enough funds (Bin Said 2011, p. 191). This is because some of the health problems that these segment of the population experiences incur colossal amounts of healthcare cost. Fortunately, the MoH is properly funded by the government and have enough funds to enable it enhanced the quality of healthcare delivered to the women and children (Ministry of Health 2001, p. 21). Because of the critical role that the MoH plays in enhancing the quality of healthcare in the country, the government of Oman usually allocates billions of dollars to the ministry to enable it meet its objectives. Therefore, it is apparent that MoH is properly positioned to respond to its objective of improving healthcare services delivered to women and children from the financial point of view. The second major strength is that the MoH has partnered with a number of non-governmental organizations to ensure that it reaches out effectively to health needs of Oman women and children. The MoH has partnered with NGOs, such as the USAID, UKAID, World Health Organization, and UNICEF to ensure that the healthcare needs of women and children are met (WHO 2010, p. 17; UNICEF 2006). These NGOs not only provide funding to the MoH, but also assist the ministry with expertise and advise to enable it improve the quality of healthcare services delivered to the Oman population. Currently, the MoH in collaboration with the NGOs are reaching out to the needs of women and children even in the remotest parts of the country, where they educate the community on disease prevention, as well as treating the sick (Bin Said 2011, p. 192). Accordingly, such collaboration has helped not only improve the quality of life of the Oman women and children, but also reduced the mortality rates of this important segment of the population. Thirdly, the MoH has positioned itself to meeting the healthcare needs of women and children by acquiring the latest technologies that assist in diagnoses and treatment of various diseases. Today, technology plays a critical role in improving the quality of healthcare delivery. Fortunately, the Oman MoH has taken steps and implemented various technologies, such as electronic health record to ensure that patient health information can be reached fast, minimize errors and ensure efficiency in the delivery of health services (Hill and Chen 1996, p. 52). Additionally, the ministry has acquired various health equipments, including cancer screening machines to help in the early diagnosis of diseases, such as breast and cervical cancers for women (Child Rights International Network 2011). Therefore, the availability and implementation of these technologies positions the MoH properly to responding to its objective of improving healthcare services delivered to women and children. Weaknesses The MoH has shown strong commitment to improving the healthcare services delivered to women and children in Oman. However, the organization has certain weaknesses that might come on its way even as it tries to achieve its objective. The first major weakness has to do with lack of enough doctors, nurses and physicians trained on women and children matters. Having enough expertise is critical in the delivery of quality healthcare services to the population. Unfortunately, the MoH is currently ill-equipped in terms of staff with training on women and children matters (Oxford Business Group 2010, p. 13). Accordingly, this is likely to act as a major impediment to the ministry in its bid to respond to its objective of improving the quality of healthcare service delivery to this segment of the Oman population. The other weakness has to do with poor remuneration of staff. Analysis of the salaries paid to the staff of the MoH showed that the ministry pays its staff poorly. This is after it emerged that the ministry pays lower wages and salaries to its staff compared to the private hospitals (Ministry of Health 2006). This is a weakness because it makes it difficult for ministry to attract expertise to join the organization to help in the delivery of quality healthcare services to the Oman population. The low wages and salaries offered by the MoH have discouraged nurses, doctors and physicians from seeking employment in the ministry. In fact, the shortage of staff with training on women and children matters at the ministry is, in part, to blame on the poor remuneration package that make experts in these areas look for private entities that pay well instead of working for the MoH. The second major weakness of MoH that might affect its effort towards improving the quality of healthcare services to its women and children has to do with lack of efficiency. Efficiency is critical in the delivery of quality health services to the population. However, Hill and Chen (1996, p. 52) study found that the medical staff at the ministry is not efficient in the delivery of healthcare services. Some report late for work while others do not see the urgency of treating the sick. Accordingly, this has sometimes resulted in unnecessary deaths at the hands of the ministry’s medical staff. Lack of efficiency is service delivery at the ministry is partly attributed to the fact that the MoH is a government institution and is not-for-profit. Lack of adequate emergency medical services is also another weakness experienced by the MoH. In order for the ministry to reach out to the healthcare needs of women and children effectively, it must have in place enough and effective emergency medical service facilities such as ambulances. Because the majority of Oman women and children live in remote rural areas, having a system of reaching them promptly in cases of emergencies is very critical (AL-Sinani 2008, p. 237). For instance, when a pregnant mother is in dire need of emergency health services, it is critical that the woman be taken to the hospital very fast or a medical team be sent to help the woman as fast as possible. However, this has always been a tall order to the MoH considering that the organization lack enough emergency medical service equipments, such as ambulances to enable it reach women and children in dire need of healthcare services (Oxford Business Group 2010, p. 19). Accordingly, lack of emergency medical services is likely to have a negative impact on the MoH in its effort to responding to its objective of improving the healthcare services delivered to woman and children. Additionally, lack of enough medical facilities and drugs is a major weakness of the MoH. Despite allocated huge funds by the government for use in expansion of the medical facilities and medicines, assessment of the facilities run by the MoH shows that the majority are still ill-equipped. Most of the ministry’s hospitals not only lack the enough nurses and doctors specialized on women and children issues, but also lack drugs and beds. Patients that visit the ministry hospitals most of the time are told to go and buy drugs from pharmacies, which is costly with the majority not able to afford (Ministry of Health 2006, p. 6). Those admitted are forced to share beds and bedding due to lack of enough facilities. However, this only increases the risk of patients’ conditions worsening or developing other health conditions. Accordingly, lack of enough medical facilities and drugs is a weakness that is likely to affect the MoH in its effort to improving the quality of healthcare service delivery to patients. Opportunities The Ministry of Health has a number of opportunities that it can exploit to ensure the achievement of its objective of enhancing healthcare service delivery to women and children. The first major opportunity is the advancements in technologies that have resulted in the development of advanced screening methods for breast cancer and HIV testing kits (The World Bank 2006, p. 31; Donald, Dawes and Louw 2000, p. 17). Therefore, by implementing these new inventions, the MoH stand a chance to improve the quality of healthcare delivery to women and children in Oman. Additionally, new birth control methods are also emerging that offer great opportunity for the MoH to promote birth spacing in the country. Threats Although the MoH has shown strong commitment to improving healthcare service delivery to women and children, the success in achieving this objective is threatened by a number of issues. Firstly, cultural issues are likely to be a major barrier to the organization in achieving its objective. In particular, some cultures in Oman are opposed to the concept of family planning and the use of contraceptives (Daar 2014). As such, it would be very difficult for the MoH to convince a section of Oman women to adopt family planning as a method of birth control. The second major threat to the success of the organization in achieving its objectives is resistance to change. Because of the bureaucratic structure of MoH, there is a possibility that the organization will experience resistance to transformation in how the organization operates to improve the healthcare service delivery to women and children (WHO 2014). Accordingly, this would make the implementation of the strategies difficult. The other major threat to the success in achieving the objective of MoH has to do with poor infrastructural facilities, such as road networks and electricity. Most roads in Oman are still weather roads that sometimes become impassable during rainy seasons. Accordingly, this makes reaching women and children in rural areas difficult, particularly when they require emergency medical services (AI Bulushi and West 2006, p. 66). Additionally, the fact that most health facilities under the MoH are not connected to electricity makes it impossible for the MoH to use certain modern technologies that might be necessary to enhance the quality of healthcare delivery to women and children in Oman. An Evaluation of the MoH’s Approach to Achieving the Objective The Ministry of Health believes that, for it to achieve its objective of improving the quality of healthcare service delivery to women and children, it has to undertake certain initiatives. Firstly, as part of its objective of improving the health of women and children, the MoH has focused its efforts towards minimizing the morbidity and mortality rates of this important segment of the Oman population. According to the ministry’s report, the 2009 maternal mortality rate stood at 13.4 for every 100,000 live births (Bin Said 2011, p. 193). However, the ministry intends to reduce the figures to 10 for every 100,000 live births by 2015. To achieve this target, the MoH intends to adopt the strategy of expanding the reproductive health service provision at all the MoH facilities in Oman (Suleiman, Al-Ghassany and Farid 1992, p. 19). The ministry believes that the only way to reduce maternal deaths and infant mortality is to focus on expanding reproductive health services. According to the ministry, breast cancer is one of the causes of deaths among Oman women. Therefore, the ministry intends to respond to this growing health problem among its women by increasing breast cancer screening services to its reproductive health service package at the primary health care level (Rahim 2003, p. 63). The ministry believes that screening women for breast cancer at the primary health care level will help ensure early detection of breast cancer and appropriate treatment started for those diagnosed with the diseases (Bin Said 2011, p. 193). However, because the MoH is still ill-equipped in terms of the number of staff with the expertise to conduct breast cancer screening, the ministry intends to overcome this weakness by providing training to healthcare providers that will be involved in conducting clinical breast examination for mothers at the primary healthcare level (Smith 1988, p.36; UN 2010). The ministry believes that tackling breast cancer will help improve reproductive health Oman mothers, which will also impact positively on the health of the infants and children. Because cancer is a terminal illness that takes people by shock when they discover that they have the disease, the ministry intends to ensure that it has enough well-trained counselors on breast cancer screening. To achieve this, the MoH plans to provide training to healthcare providers that will be involved in offering counseling services to mothers being screened for breast cancer (Bin Said 2011, p. 194; WHO 2000). The counselors will advice mothers on the right cause of action when diagnosed with the disease and how to go about managing the condition at its earliest stages to ensure full recovery. Counseling is also necessary because it will help eliminate anxiety, shock and depression that usually characterize cancer diagnosis. Because HIV/AIDS is another health problem affecting many mothers and children in Oman, the MoH intends to tackle the problem by setting up medical facilities in the communities, including moving from house to house to offer counseling and testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (Anda, Felitti and Walker 2006, p. 175). The ministry believes that conducting regular test for HIV for Oman women will help ensure early detection in pregnant mothers. Accordingly, this will assist in preventing mother to child transmission of HIV (Mahowald 1996, p. 77). Currently, the MoH is working hard to ensure effective implementation of this strategy by training healthcare providers that it intends to send to the community to offer counseling and testing for HIV. The MoH also intends to achieve its objective by improving the reproductive practice of the community. For instance, the ministry believes that having healthy mothers and children require having enough children that a mother can carry effectively and provide for without problems. Unfortunately, this has always been a problem in Oman where mothers tend to give birth to many children that they cannot event be able to provide for (Ministry of Health 2012, p. 16). Therefore, as part of the ministry’s strategy of improving the health and wellbeing of women and children, the organization has taken steps towards expanding birth spacing services. These include introducing new contraceptive methods to help women plan their birth duration. By spacing births according to plan, women are able to live a healthy life and give birth to the right number of children whom they can provide for without problems (Jack, Atrash and Bickmore, 2008, p. 25). To expand the birth spacing services in the country, the Ministry of Health plans to train healthcare providers on contraceptives in order to enhance their skills on birth spacing (Bin Said 2011, p. 197). The ministry believes that, by having enough trained healthcare providers, this will help the organization achieve its objectives as it would be having staff to offer counseling services to Oman women on the importance of using contraceptives for birth control. In fact, the ministry recognizes the fact that there are many myths about the use of contraceptives that scare away Oman women from using contraceptives (Angood, rmstrong and Ashton 2010, p. s19. Therefore, the best way to encourage the women to space their birth using contraceptives is to educate the public on the truth about contraceptives and why they need to embrace it for the betterment of the lives and wellbeing (AI Bulushi and West 2006, p. 27). The Ministry of Health also intends to achieve its objective by conducting countrywide immunization services to children. Studies conducted in Oman have shown that most infant mortality is caused by preventable diseases, such as measles, polio, and chickenpox among others (Toure et al. 2012, p. 45; Pregler and DeCherney 2002, p. 53). Therefore, in order to reduce infant mortality rate in the country, the MoH has put in place plans to conduct immunization against these diseases free of charge throughout the country (Hill, Muyeed, and Al-Lawati 2000, p. 19). The ministry believes that immunization will prevent children from developing these diseases, thereby ensuring their wellbeing. In fact, infant mortality rates attributed to these preventable diseases has reduced significantly since the MoH began immunization campaign in the country. Additionally, the MoH plans to achieve the objective on improving the quality of healthcare service delivery to women and children by ensuring that it has enough doctors and nurses. Oman ranks amongst the countries with pathetic patient to nurse ratio (Ministry of Health 2005, p. 26. The shortage of specialized trained doctors and nurses on women and children matters has made it difficult for the organization to meet the healthcare needs of its children and women. For instance, it is shown that one nurse or doctor is handling hundreds of patients a day because of the shortage (International Business Publications USA 2009, p. 34). Therefore, to achieve its objectives, the ministry is currently offering training to doctors and nurses on women health (AI Bulushi and West 2006, p. 16). These include establishing more medical training institutions that offer training to nurses and doctors on women and children health. The organization believes that increasing the number of trained doctors and nurses in the country will help a great deal in improving the quality of healthcare service delivery to its population, women and children, in particular (Eickelman 1984, p. 43). Further, to achieve its objective of improving the quality of healthcare delivery to women and children, MoH intends to increase its healthcare facilities to ensure ease of access to quality healthcare services (IPU 2011). Like most developing countries, Oman lacks enough government run health facilities. As such, most patients are still forced to seek medical attention in private hospitals despite high cost. Unfortunately, this puts women and children at risk of dying because of lack of access to affordable medical care. In response, the MoH intends to address this problem by constructing additional well-equipped medical health facilities in the communities to make it easy and faster for women and children to receive quality and affordable medical care (Jones and Ridout 2012, p. 23). Similarly, the MoH intends to establish effective emergency medical services, consisting of ambulances to ensure that women and children in need of healthcare services are reached in the fastest time possible (Hill, Muyeed, and Al-Lawati 2000, p. 26). Accordingly, this would help save lives, particularly for women and children in rural areas that cannot access medical facilities easily due to poor infrastructures and lack of medical facilities. Part 2 My Contribution as a Leader in Helping MoH Achieve its Objectives Successfully The Oman Ministry of Health has shown strong commitment to improving the quality of healthcare services delivered to women and children. The organization has also set a number of strategies that it intends to pursue to enable it achieve its objective. However, the success of the organization in achieving its objectives will depend largely on the leadership of the organization. A leader is a person with the powers to influence the actions of the followers. Therefore, as a leader of the Ministry of Health, I am positioned to make a huge contribution to the success of the ministry in achieving its objectives of improving healthcare service delivery to patients. Firstly, as a leader, I would contribute to the success of the MoH by assisting in setting the direction for the ministry and guiding quality improvement efforts. As things stand, the Ministry of Health has set an objective of improving healthcare service delivery to women and children. However, to achieve this, there is a need for an effective leader to ensure that the objectives are achieved through effective implementation (Schyns and Meindl 2005, p. 34). Accordingly, I intend to use my influence and powers as a leaders of the MoH to set direction that the organization will take to ensure effective implementation of the strategies that the organization intend to adopt in ensuring the realization of the objectives. Similarly, one of the major functions of a leader is to exert positive influence on the followers to ensure the achievement of the organizational goal (Northouse 2010, p. 11). Therefore, as a leader, I intend to use my powers as a leader to influence the MoH staff to work hard towards ensuring the achievement of the organizational goals. These would involve making the members of the staff believe that the objective set is achievable and rallying them towards the achievement of the objectives (Ford 2015). In particular, I intend to ensure that the MoH members of staff are highly motivated to encourage them to put more efforts to ensure that the quality of healthcare services to women and children is improved. Secondly, I intend to use my leadership position to contribute to the success in the achievement of the MoH’s objectives by coming up with ideas and ideologies then propagating them in the entire organization. Today, the healthcare environment is complicated and experiences dramatic changes due to technological, socio-cultural, economic and political factors (U.S. Department of State 2011). Therefore, for a healthcare institution to succeed in such a complex and rapidly changing environment, effective leadership is critical. This view is supported by Swayne et al. (2006, p. 19) by suggesting that effective leadership is important for a healthcare institution to cope with the rapid and complex changes that occur in the healthcare sector today. According to Swayne, to succeed in such a complex system, healthcare organizations must ensure that they have leaders who are knowledgeable about the nature of the external environment to be able to come up with effective strategies that are capable of coping with the changes and workflow. Therefore, as a leader who understands the nature of the external environment of a healthcare institution, I intend to contribute to the success of the organization by developing effective strategies that will enable MoH cope with the changes and the workflow. In the literature, it become clear that human resource is a big challenge that could limit the organization in achieving its objective of improving healthcare delivery to women and children. Therefore, as a leader, I intend to use my leadership position to contribute to the success of the organization by ensuring that the MoH acquire the required number of healthcare providers to ensure successful implementation of the set strategies. To achieve this, I would liaise with the Oman government and NGOs to assist the ministry with funds needed to recruit and train healthcare providers to help bridge the existing gap. Additionally, the culture of an organization has a huge influence on how thing are done. However, according to analysis of the MoH, it becomes apparent that a bad culture towards work is largely to blame for its inability to meet its objectives. Therefore, as a transformational leader, I intend to use my position to transform the culture of the organization by introducing a culture of hard work by staff. Transformational leadership is critical in bringing about change in the organization because such leaders act with integrity and understand how to develop a good work culture and inspire a vision (Northouse 2010, p. 17, Collins, Rustgiand Doty 2010, p. 42). Transformational leaders are motivational and are good at building a strong and successful team. As such, I intend to use transformational leadership to create a good working culture and inspire staff to work had towards the achievement of the objectives of the organization. Further, as a leader, I intend to use my powers to ensure that additional healthcare facilities are built throughout the country to ensure ease of access of health facilities by women and children. As demonstrated in the literature, Oman is still much ill-equipped in terms of medical facilities. The MoH, in particular, lack enough facilities to cater for the needs of the population. Therefore, to contribute to the success of the ministry in achieving its objective, I intend to use my position as a leader to solicit for funds from the government and well-wishers to use in putting up additional health facilities in the rural areas so that women and children can have easy access to the healthcare (Chatrath and Gray 2006, p. 1). Making the healthcare facilities available and easily accessible to women and children would help the organization achieve its objective of improving the quality of healthcare services provided to women and children in Oman. Conclusion Women and children are an important segment of the population. Women are a critical human resource and play a critical part in the development of a country. Therefore, improving the health of women and children in a country is critical. For this reason, the Ministry of Health in Oman has taken an initiative aimed at improving the healthcare services provided to women and children to ensure their good health and wellbeing. The ministry has taken different approaches, including promoting breast cancer screening and HIV testing to ensure early detection, expanding birth spacing and immunizing children among others. 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