Involvement of Rural Communities in Healthcare - Research Paper Example

? INVOLVEMENT OF RURAL COMMUNITIES IN HEALTHCARE Task: Table of contents 1 Aims and Objectives........................................................................................... 4 1.2 Hypotheses ......................................................................................................... 4 2. Introduction ......................................................................................................... .5 2.1 Background .........................................................................................................5 2.2 Operational definitions .......................................................................................6 3. Statement of Problem ............................................................................................6 4. Literature Review ...................................................................................................7 5. Research Design .....................................................................................................8 5.1 Establish research objectives ...............................................................................9 5.2 Determine Scope and Limitations ........................................................................9 5.3 Propositions ..........................................................................................................9 6. Research Methodology ..........................................................................................10 6.1 Identify Target Population ....................................................................................11 6.2 Perform Sampling .................................................................................................11 6.3 Design Data Collection Mechanism ......................................................................11 6.4 Collect Data ............................................................................................................12 6.5 Analyze Data ..........................................................................................................12 7. Results ......................................................................................................................12 8. Conclusions ..............................................................................................................13 9. References .........................................................................................................15 Involvement of Rural Communities in Healthcare Abstract This project establishes the objectives of the research, which is to investigate the impact of community-based solutions that address crisis in providing healthcare to rural inhabitants. Subsequently, the project makes assertions, which are evaluated based on the data amassed. Evidently, Australia and Saudi Arabia are struggling to serve the rural community medically. Therefore, this project seeks to determine whether “expanded scope paramedics” (ESP) alter the state of rural healthcare (Albejaidi 2010, p.1). The project undertakes a literature review on the situation in both nations. Subsequently, the project adopts an investigative and descriptive design, which generates unstructured data. The project outlines the research objectives, states the span of the study and makes a proposition. Concurrently, the research adopts qualitative methodology and subsequently samples respondents from its target population. The project amasses data exclusively through interviews. Consequently, the research analyzes results and makes relevant inferences. Aims and objectives This assignment should establish the means for community involvement in healthcare. In addition, the study should state the areas where healthcare is lacking in the countryside. This proposal must ascertain how participation can decrease response time. Currently, the solutions enacted have culminated in elevated medical expenditure. Therefore, it would be imperative to ascertain the cost reduction arising from community participation. Hypotheses The involvement of community in healthcare through ESP would significantly reduce relevant expenditure. Alternatively, this research should establish if participation of the community would not culminate in a reduction of healthcare cost. This project through statistics gathered should ascertain the cost implications of participation of communities in healthcare. The government in Saudi Arabia and Australia expends enormous resources to meet the medical requirement of their citizen in the countryside (Albejaidi 2010, p.1). The above situation transpires since the nations have an extensive countryside with minimal residency. Introduction Australia and Saudi Arabia medics encounter multiple challenges when availing healthcare to communities in far-flung locations. This is because the two nations have expansive rural areas with few inhabitants (Vincent 2008, p 39). Providing healthcare services to these citizens requires enormous resources since medical staff cover extensive distances. Notably, Saudi Arabia’s health department encounters difficulties trying to avail these services to nomadic communities that inhabit the desert. The country acknowledges that the previous attempts to avail these services have been futile since the conditions are inhabitable to most staff in the Health department. Similarly, the countryside in Australia is extensive with minimal inhabitation. Responding to medical is exigent. The two countries provide sublime conditions to study this topic since they have relatively similar circumstances. In addition, previous endeavors to resolve have fared dismally due to extensive funding required to support the solutions. The study seeks to ascertain the effective of a certain measure in availing medical services to rural areas (Coburn, Wakefield & Casey et al 2004, p 315). The participation of communities in providing healthcare presents a dimension to resolve the above situation. Consequently, this project has the fundamental objective of establishing the results of involvement of community in the provision of healthcare. Background Saudi Arabia and Australia have entrenched healthcare as a right to all citizens of the respective countries. However, provision of healthcare to the citizenry outside the cities has proved tricky owing to the expansive county sides of the two nations. Australia has endeavoured to surmount these hardships presented by engaging the communities affected by the terrain. The Australian resolution has involved instilling medical skills on communities to enable swift responses to remedial emergencies. Similarly, Saudi Arabia attempts to avail medical services to the nomadic inhabitant has culminated in failure. The nomads are constantly repositioning making it complicated to find them. Furthermore, the terrain that they inhabit is harsh for ordinary medics. Saudi Arabia resolution to this problem has proved costly. Therefore, the nation is researching on methods to solve healthcare woes as it endeavours to provide all its citizenry with healthcare. Operational Definition The proposal seeks to study the impact of involvement of communities in the provision of healthcare. The involvement of the communities will largely involve instilling healthcare skills. Upon passing knowledge to the communities, the research will elaborate the impact on cost and response time to medical mishaps. Overall, the research should highlight the impact of passing medical knowledge to the rural society (Oxford Business Group 2010, p 288). The extensive countryside has deterred access of medical services to these areas. Consequently, solution instituted by Saudi Arabia and Australia have failed largely due to the financial outlay required. ESP is a programme that seeks to foster collaboration with resident communities to enhance healthcare. ESP represents a shift toward community-oriented solutions to healthcare challenges. The proposal seeks to study an innovation of integrating the communities to healthcare provision by passing medical skills to them (Loue & Quill 2001, p 2). Statement of Problem Saudi Arabia and Australia are encountering comparable problems in providing healthcare to rural communities. This problem arises since both nations have expansive countryside with minimal inhabitation. Medics fail to respond to medical needs of the communities due to expansive distance and hostile terrain. In addition, assigning medics to attend to these rural communities culminates in high employee turnover and employment dissatisfaction (Stirling, Meara, Pedler, Tourle and Walker 2007, p 2). In the endeavour to avail healthcare to these marginalised communities, the two nations are experimenting innovative ways of countering this challenge. Literature review Various scholars and organizations have studied this subject. Initially, studies reveal an innovative programme, which the Australian medical department seeks to implement hence, integrating communities in fostering healthcare in rural areas. ESP seeks to harness community-based solutions to solve the above problem since other solutions are infeasible (Luck 2011, p.313). In addition, medics committed face multiple challenges that led to employment dissatisfaction. The primary objective ESP is to reduce medical response duration. This is the primary failing of the medical department since medics have to cover extensive distances to reach the rural populations. This programme will foster partnership with communities (Willis, Reynolds, Helen 2008, p125). Subsequently, the Healthcare fraternity can input medical skills into these communities. Therefore, the communities will have an inherent capability to counter majority of the medical cases reducing the response time (Luck 2011, p.313). Similarly, the second investigation highlights the healthcare department in Saudi Arabia that is facing similar difficulties. Saudi Arabia medics attending to nomads encounter hostile terrain and climate. Furthermore, the nomads relocate relentlessly in pursuit of grazing land. The Saudi Arabian government seeks alternative solutions to this problem since it aims at achieving the global healthcare objectives. These goals encompass offering care to the entire citizenry. The study proposers an assortment of solutions that can resolve this hurdle if implemented simultaneously. The solutions include restructuring of “Public health care” (PHC) (Oxford Business Group 2010, p 288). Similarly, this study underscores the critical role that communities will embrace in availing healthcare to marginalised populations. Certainly, the two nations face almost identical dilemma only that the countryside in Saudi Arabia is exceedingly desolate. Moreover, Australia has achieved more progress in addressing the above handles. Surprisingly, the Saudi Arabian outlines a peculiar finding, which denotes that ethnic groups inhabiting remote developed additional resistance to ailment although they occasionally succumb to them. Conclusively, the two studies incline towards community-based resolutions in addressing healthcare in the countryside. Notably, the investigations propose that authorities train the inhabitants of inaccessible areas basic healthcare procedures (Mansour 2008, p102). Research Design The proposal will adopt a mixed design, which will include “descriptive and exploratory research” (Mansour 2008, p. 102). This due to the following reasons, first, the study fundamentally aims at describing the impact of community participation in the provision of healthcare to rural inhabitants. Secondly, it ought to unearth improvisation to boost healthcare provision to marginalised inhabitants. The above reason will demand exploratory research. Finally, the investigations should establish the cost repercussions of the creations. Expressive and exploratory designs predominantly generate structured data that require in-depth analysis to enable inferences. Additionally, they grant the researcher freedom in data gathering. Application of mixed research design makes the research dynamic hence, capable of tackling a multidimensional topic. Ideally, this makes this makes the proposed designed suitable for this research, which seeks to study multi-perspectives topic. The project is multi-dimensional since it analyses various aspects of involvement of the communities in providing healthcare. Research objectives The research should detail the dilemmas that medics in Australia and Saudi Arabia encounter in availing healthcare services in rural areas. The researcher should disclose extent of partnership expected from the respective communities. The studies should elaborate changes in healthcare system that can integrate civilian based solutions. Establish how the healthcare department can integrate volunteers in resolving this challenge. Outline of the designation of duties to volunteers. Disclose financial impacts of integration of ESP Determine Scope and Limitations This research will study diverse aspect of integration of community in resolving healthcare provision in rural areas of Saudi Arabia and Australia. The research proposal addresses an assortment of issue that circumnavigate the research project. The project begins by stating the research topic on which is the basis for the project. The project will state the gap created by failure of healthcare staff in Australia and Saudi Arabia. In addition, it will establish the ways to amalgamate volunteers in providing healthcare. This project will underscore the crucial changes required in the PHC. Notably, the project should establish the knowledge that the volunteers from the communities require to attend to any emergency. This research will encounter diverse challenges, which will predominantly involve unavailability of data. Minimal statistics exist in relation to healthcare in Saudi Arabia. Conversely, adequate data exist detailing healthcare in rural Australia. Reaching the nomads in Saudi Arabia will be hectic since they relocate often in an expansive desert. Proposition Evidently, the solutions that the Saudi Arabian and Australian governments have adopted in availing medical care to the rural inhabitant have proved infeasible. Therefore, the Australian medical fraternity has created ESP, a programme that seeks to harness community-based solutions (Luck 2011, p 314). Similarly, the solutions implemented by the Saudi Arabian government are unsustainable due to resources requirement. Consequently, this project has hypothesized that integration of volunteers and collaboration with local communities will reduce cost of care provision considerably. Verification of the above hypothesis will require in-depth research on the financial outcomes of this innovative programme. Research Methodology Successful accomplishment of this research will require diverse data since the project is multifaceted. Initially, the research should conduct thorough secondary research. This guarantees that the researcher has the required academic background to conduct such a project. In addition, the researcher will unearth related studies that will provide critical guidance of how to conduct the project. Notably, this research focuses on care. Consequently, it is crucial to outline the skills that the community will require to engage fully in the provision of medical care. This research will exclusively utilize qualitative research. The above methodology permits the researcher to explore the topic. Fundamentally, this research investigates the reasoning, which culminates in certain decisions. This project seeks to evaluate the impact of the impact of Saudi Arabian and Australian governments’ decision to engage the rural communities in healthcare. In addition, this research has an exploratory perspective since it endeavours to analyze new phenomena. Both nations are trying out strategies to resolve the gap in care provision to the countryside. Consequently, the research will build up new facts during interviews, which he will explore. Qualitative research predominantly generates unstructured data since it investigates the reasoning in decision-making. This project also seeks to determine the appropriate medical skills, which volunteers would require enabling them react to emergencies. Identify Target Population This project will encompass an expansive target population. First, the researcher will interview the rural inhabitants in Saudi Arabia and Australia. The inhabitant will detail the failings in provision of healthcare due to the expansive countryside. Secondly, medics will also provide essential information on the difficulties encountered as they execute their duties in the countryside. Medical strategists in both nations will provide insight on why they have opted to embrace community-based solutions (Conrad & Gallagher 1993 p 295). In addition, they will stipulate additional reforms required in the healthcare sector in both nations. Perform Sampling This project has an expansive target population Therefore; the researcher should institute purposeful sampling. This ensures that researcher obtains respondents who will avail appropriate information. However, the researcher should ensure separate sampling in both nations since they diverge slightly. Data Collection Mechanism This research will exclusively gather statistic through interview. Interviewing is a suitable method to amass statistics in descriptive and investigative research. Notably, interviewing is a flexible methodology, which complements exploratory research since it sanctions the researcher to enlarge the span of research as additional details emerge. Consequently, the researcher can design questions to reveal the required data. Interviews allow for lengthy discussions exhausting all the appropriate information. Certainly, the queries raised to respondent will differ depending on the interviewee. The research should subject the rural residence to queries that relate to failure in healthcare provision. Conversely, medical strategists should respond to queries that relate to the healthcare fraternity seeking community-based solutions to medical care provision woes. Collect Data As previously denoted, this interview will amass data through interviews. This process will require the researcher to visit Saudi Arabia and Australia to gather statistics. The researcher should record the interviews. However, the researcher should take notes if the respondent declines recording of the interview. Moreover, the research should guarantee respondents confidentiality. Analyze Data Qualitative researcher generates unstructured data that require in-depth analysis. Therefore, the researcher should replay the recordings and decipher relevant information. Where necessary, the researcher should make graphical representation to unearth trends. Analysis of trends will grant the researcher with supplementary insight into the data. Eventually, the researcher should make a comparison of statistics from Saudi Arabia and Australia. Conspicuously, the data amassed will predominantly descriptive. Results Despite the communication hitches encountered in Saudi Arabia, the researcher proceeded smoothly. The residents in rural Saudi Arabia and Australia unanimously acknowledged the existing gap in the provision of medical services. Australians admitted that reaction to urgent situations was ineffective since medics generally arrive late. However, the attributed this to the sparse inhabitation and the expansive distances. Saudi Arabians interviewed revealed that they scarcely receive any medical services. Consequently, they travelled to the closest urban centres. Australians viewed that collaboration with the health fraternity and volunteering would reduce the emergency response time. Therefore, ESP was a timely innovation. Unlike Australians, Saudi Arabians displayed division on the best way to boost medical care provision in desolate areas. Few Saudi Arabian opted for a community-derived solution. Nonetheless, they stated that provision of such services was the government responsibility. Hence, the authorities should overhaul the PHC guarantee that it has apposite structure to avail medical services to inaccessible locations. Medics stipulated that community based solutions were key to resolving this problem. The medics’ proposition concurred with the project’s findings. Clearly, for collaboration to succeed between healthcare workforce and community members, it is crucial that apposite knowledge is impacted on the latter (Grobler, Marais & Mabunda et al 2004 par 2). During the projects period, the Australian countryside communities responded timely to emergencies than paramedics. Accordingly, a community-based solution is central to resolution of this problem (Lewin 2010, p23). Similarly, collaboration between the Saudi Arabian PHC considerably solve medical care provision problem. However, the Saudi Arabian respondents regard resolution of this problem as a primary chore of the administration. Medical strategists foresee a decrease in healthcare cost since collaboration harness public capability previously unutilized (Cavendish 2006, p 93). Conclusion The Australian respondents view ESP as a programme, which can eliminate the gap that exists in the provision of healthcare to rural inhabitants. Similarly, the project findings reveal that health authorities should undertake training of volunteers that will participate in the programme. Conversely, most Saudi Arabian respondents view that collaboration between the communities and PHC will yield minimal data. Instead, they perceive that an overhaul of PHC culminating with a structure, which adequately provides for inhabitants or remote locations, is necessary. Conclusively, this project analyzes respondents from two nations facing a similar dilemma. However, respondent of both nations display differing opinion on the way to resolve the problem. List of References Albejaid, F 2010, Healthcare System in Saudi Arabia: An Analysis of Structure, Total Quality Management and Future Challenges. Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences. vol. 2, no. 2, p.1-17. Cavendish, M 2006, World and Its Peoples, New York, NY, Marshall Cavendish Coburn, A, Wakefield, M, Casey, M, Moscovice, I, Payne, S and Loux, S 2004, Assuring Rural Hospital Patient Safety: What Should Be the Priorities?. The Journal of Rural Health, 20: 314–326. Conrad, P & Gallagher, E 1993, Health and health care in developing countries: sociological perspectives Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press Grobler, L, Marais B, Mabunda, A, Marindi, N, Reuter, H & Volmink, J 2009, Interventions for increasing the proportion of health professionals practising in rural and other underserved areas. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD005314. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD005314.pub2. Lewin S, Munabi-Babigumira S, Glenton C, Daniels K, Bosch-Capblanch X, van Wyk BE, Odgaard-Jensen J, Johansen M, Aja G, Zwarenstein M, Scheel I 2010, Lay health workers in primary and community health care for maternal and child health and the management of infectious diseases. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD004015 Loue, S & Quill, B 2001, Handbook of rural health, New York, NY, Springer Luck, G 2011, Demographic Change in Australia's Rural Landscapes: Implications for Society and the Environment, New York, NY, Springer.  Mansour, A 2008, Factors affecting locational decisions of Saudi health care professionals, ProQuest, Illionis. Oxford Business Group 2010, The Report: Saudi Arabia 2010, Oxford Business Group, Saudi Arabia. Stirling, C, O’Meara, P, Pedler, D, Tourle, V & Walker, J 2007, Engaging rural communities in health care through a paramedic expanded scope of practice, Rural and Remote Health Vol 7: 839. Vincent, P 2008, Saudi Arabia: an environmental overview, California, CA, Routledge Willis, E, Reynolds, L & Helen, K 2008, Understanding the Australian Health Care System, Elsevier, Australia. Read More