The Importance of Nurses Awareness in Ensuring Good Care - Annotated Bibliography Example

Running header: Article summary Article summaries Client inserts his/her name Client inserts name of tutor Course title Date of submission Racine-Welch, T. & Welch, M. (2000). Listening for the sounds of silence: a nursing consideration of caring for the politically tortured, Nursing Inquiry, vol. 7, pp. 136-141. Torture is a major problem that is evident in scores of nations with political wrangles. Victims from such nations are left homeless and thus forced to flee to other countries where they become refugees. This leaves lifetime scars on involved individuals who live traumatized. Universally, there is an assertion on the importance of nurses’ awareness in ensuring good care is instilled. Torture is expresses as intentional infliction of physical or mental pain to a person or people for whatsoever motive. Usually, acts of torture inculcate fear and limit the freedom of the person involved. The sense of self is not well thought-out and the torturers compel the victims to act according to their will thereby dismantling the inherent legitimacy of a person. Medical professionals need to be aware of the state of the victims before applying any kind of help. Various people are vulnerable to torture and all citizens in a country are at risk in case of any political fallout. Nurses and other medical care givers are meant to wholly identify and care for this people soundly. In this regard, nurses need universal political awareness to handle victims from all walks of life. Besides, they need to comprehend the background and nature of the refugee in addition to the past and present health concerns. Torturers are as many as victims and anyone is capable of performing this inhuman act. Surprisingly, psychiatric and medical doctors might inflict pain either directly or indirectly. This is displayed when carrying out professional duties and roles as well as lack of confidentiality when handling these victims. Individuals can be tortured in numerous ways. These may be all natures of beatings, sexual assault, starvation, execution, mockery among many others. Nurses should link the methods to available intervention mechanisms. Most victims experience nightmares, flashbacks, disorientation, depression, hype arousal, anger, anxiety and lethargy. It is prudent for health providers to comprehend that each case of torture is inimitable and should be handled with its uniqueness well looked into. Majorly, nurses should listen to the victim, be tactful, moral and professional. Moreover, they should offer comfort, reassurance, restore dignity and respect. Managing victims of torture requires both moral and professional practice. Besides, a global awareness of refugee situations should be well known to the caregivers for them to handle them with the sensitivity that is deserved. Broom, D. (2009). Men’s health and women’s health: Deadly enemies or strategic allies. Critical Public Health, vol. 19, no. 3-4, pp. 269-277. Women and men’s health issues converge at a certain point despite the contradictory perspectives held some times. Conversely, effective population health may be arrived at through mutual strategy alliances despite the differences that have been noted in various nations in times of yore. It is clear that the disparities in regards to history, the engendered movements hold akin hazards and probable coalition opportunities. The entry point of the conflicts may be traced to the content and framework of the configuration of the movements. Women’s movement is a product of the reaction to claims of discrimination in a chauvinistic society thus the intention to legitimize women health programs. Besides, women developed a strong need to address social and economic injustices such as job discrimination, pregnancy, abortion and child birth concerns and sexual symbolism. They thus felt that they deserved equal treatment and opportunity without considering language, race, class, age, disability or isolation. On the other hand, men’s movement came into being due to the fundamental fact that they had stronger and larger bargaining power communally. They held higher positions and thus were not responding to underrepresentation. Instead, it was a sole response to high death rates and disease incursion where men were considered to be at risk such as HIV/AIDS and involvement in perilous behaviors. No matter how wide the disparities may be, in any case there is a common ground where both gender movements come to terms. From the social perspective, there is a close interaction between gender and other social factors. Social cultural changes impact health matters that affect lives of both males and females. Additionally, both gender movements are interested in promoting humanity through fair dealing. They aim at promoting human dignity by asserting on fundamental human rights. Both movements aim at functioning effectively in the universal context. Male and female health movements face challenges and limitations that may get in the way of their chances of alliances. Unequal allocation of resources may pull apart development of alliances. Also, insufficient funding may limit any imminent alliances. Either, the reality of gender based obstruction is always a stumbling block. Mutual aid and peaceful co-existence between men and women health is movements necessary for a healthy and productive society. Unity is inevitable in a developing nation. Dragon, N. (2010). Homelessness. Australian Nursing Journal, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 26-29. Homeless and marginalized people need outreach primary health care. In many countries, these people usually stay with friends or family, some bed in a boarding house while others sleep rough outside in the cold. The problem however has not been addressed for many years, but recently the government took charge. Insufficient housing is every nation’s dilemma. Nevertheless, good living standards are becoming everyone’s concern. The government therefore is expected to provide housing facility funding for a large proportion of its population that is vulnerable. Through registry programs, many homeless people can be identified and thus put on health care program. Homelessness is accompanied with multifarious health issues. Most people are diagnosed with complex and chronic health conditions such as mental illnesses, liver diseases, diabetes, respiratory and kidney diseases. These conditions arise from unhealthy behaviors with extreme indulgence in alcohol and substance abuse common among people in this situation. It should be considered a right to every human being to access comfortable fundamental living. Advocacy for right based is very necessary in such cases where these people should without much effort access nursing care. Outreach health and awareness programs should be based on refugee camps and support centers. It is also important to offer nutritional support and health care provision. The support staff should target services to reach the affected people throughout the country. Practicing nurses play the role of health care providers to the needy. They restore the sense of self through encouraging and comforting the homeless. They require full health evaluation and consideration of their multiple health needs. However, poor time management, lack of suitable long-term accommodation and distinctive management and health care support systems may hinder effective care provision. A long term policy for ending homelessness should involve employment, education and counseling mechanisms. Integrated support is vital with solutions to financial and issues of violence. The government needs to be willing and commit funds to national partnerships in response to eradication of housing problems. For women who usually are victims of sexual assault and domestic violence need medical care and counseling services. Predisposing factors to the homeless state should be eliminated to end the problem utterly. These factors include domestic violence, social inequity, family breakdown and poverty. This situation makes people from disadvantaged backgrounds to experience property prices, lack of affordable housing and unemployment. Therefore, homelessness can be done away with through collective responsibility. Price, K. (2007). Nurses in general practice settings: roles and responsibilities. Contemporary Nurse, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 7-14. Nurses are professionals who contribute to general health services management. They are very important health service providers in the world. They are required in adequacy to practice in health institutions and where need may arise. Most governments are currently working towards improving accessibility and affordability of primary health care services for rural and remote citizens. Quality improvement and integration of primary care, prevention and better management of diseases and relieve of work place pressure during practice are some of the improvement policies the government is looking into. Since this is a basic profession in human resource, it needs to be well established. Practicing nurses refer to those professionals working in the health service context. The major role of professionals is in general practice. However, this profession has been faced with inadequacies such as inefficient body of knowledge, deficient professional literature and activity, limited numbers of nurses in the field and the ever impending cases of specialty services from the community. These complexities need an immediate response from the relevant government bodies. Many people fail to realize the differences between practice nurses and nurse practitioners and the fact that there exist different levels of nurses. Besides, the nurses have various roles as well as titles. These disparities indicate the enormous contributions made by the entire team of nurses in general practice. The field of nursing requires development in regards to increased numbers of practicing nurses. Extreme competencies should be improved so as to instill respect and they be regarded as autonomy health professionals. They therefore should be endowed with capacity and diversity to satisfy people’s needs. They should have necessary qualifications to enable them to practice effectively. Overly, nurses need to develop their practitioner roles in general in practice. The entire nursing profession needs to achieve dynamic practice with high levels of knowledge and skills. All nursing models should be displaying accountability and autonomy for suitable practice. Leadership is supposed to be made of good policy and collaborative health services. Clinical leadership is very sensitive and needs to be handled with much concern and precaution. Furthermore, the government intends to develop nurses wholly with practice nurse and practitioner roles in real contexts. In this regard, health services provided by nurses will be great and proficient. Either the government initiative to take nurse practice to greater heights may enable and constrain the role and responsibilities of nurses. Morrison, Z. (2007) Caring about sexual assault. Family Matters, no. 76, pp. 55-63. Sexual assault affects both individuals and families greatly. It is a happening that leaves people with untold pain and suffering. The victims sometimes know well their perpetrators but most of them are strangers. It is necessary to understand the impacts of sexual assault such that everyone will have skills and knowledge on how best to care for the victims. The victims or survivors experience pain and terror during the assault. Afterwards, individuals live in confusion, shock and denial which results into self blame and low self esteem. Some may suffer from disassociation which may arouse anxiety. Women in particular suffer medical complexities such as gynecological symptoms, unwanted pregnancies and other sexually transmitted diseases. Family members become secondary victims of the traumatic experience. Most of them go through trauma when receiving the news, disorientation, outward adjustment, reorganization and integration and resolution. All stages of distress illustrate how family members suffer in the event of assault of their own. Family relationships and function becomes dismantled due to such happenings. This depends on whether the assault was done by a family member or a stranger. Family ties are disrupted more so after adult rape. Other impacts include communication breakdown, fearful reactions and a shift to dependent relationship, sense of devaluation and guilty, self blame and blame towards others. Specific family members are affected in various ways. Intimate partners undergo secondary trauma characterized by painful thoughts and feelings on the realization of what happened to their loved ones. Parents whose children are victims usually get distressed more than ever. Children whose parents are victims suffer and the impact is likened to that resulting from child abuse. They experience psychological difficulties, emotional distress and developmental problems. Responses may determine the healing process of victims. This relies on their positivity or negativity. Negative responses lead to poor adjustment mechanisms and self denial. With a positive response that entails lending the victims an ear and believing what they say, victims feel comforted and gain the sense of self worth with ease. Victims can be effectively cared for or better still care for themselves. Caregivers should espouse positive response through belief, listening without passing judgment, meeting needs instantaneously, reassurance and respect for the healing process. Either, victims should avoid self blame, seek help, and seek understanding of the situation and overall self care. Besides, policy makers should look into availing community education on this issue, funding programs and carry out appropriate research. References Broom, D. (2009). Men’s health and women’s health: Deadly enemies or strategic allies. Critical Public Health, vol. 19, no. 3-4, pp. 269-277. Dragon, N. (2010). Homelessness. Australian Nursing Journal, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 26-29. Morrison, Z. (2007) Caring about sexual assault. Family Matters, no. 76, pp. 55-63. Price, K. (2007). Nurses in general practice settings: roles and responsibilities. Contemporary Nurse, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 7-14. Racine-Welch, T. & Welch, M. (2000). Listening for the sounds of silence: a nursing Consideration of caring for the politically tortured, Nursing Inquiry, vol. 7, pp. 136-141. Read More