Differences between health care providers and community health members - Assignment Example

The community health workers are members of a community chosen by organizations in order to provide health care to the members of their society. The many other names of these members are village health workers, community health aide/ community health promoter and lay health providers. These community health workers don’t hold professional certifications or degrees; instead they are trained enough to support and provide essential and primary health care services. The health care providers are supported by the money from the public and are protected by the laws and regulations implemented by the state, whereas, the community health members are supported through private funding, obtained through donations and charities.

In many developing countries there is a major shortage of well-educated health professionals. Medical institutions and nursing schools are now being able to train enough workers to keep up with the burgeoning demand of health care services day by day. In countries like the sub- Saharan Africa the health care is often provided by the private community workers or the institutions which are not owned by their government. Also, in the United States, $330 million were invested from the 2010 federal budget to increase the number of doctors and nurses in the medically underserved areas of U.S. Due to these distinctive properties of the both groups on the grounds of administration, will only Currently there are more than 1.

3 million community health workers, helping the general public worldwide. Not only are there differences in the level of competency in both the groups, instead either are also used for the lucrative purposes. When a service is considered non- lucrative then they are specified as “not-for-profit” organizations. The word “non-governmental” also indicates organizations that offer their services without the purpose of making profits. These differences create confusion and bolster prejudices, changing the culture of any community participation.

The non-government sectors have been able to deliver acceptable levels of health care to the remote and insecure areas of the countries. Also promotion of these professional doctors and practitioners is becoming difficult because of the uncertainty in the career and issues in training nurses in NGO schools which is recognized by the national nursing council. These differences become a constant interruption during the contribution in the health system at a time when it is needed the most. In the past all these public health services were financed and belonged to the government, represented by the Ministry of Health.

There has been a never ending debate of the status of these groups. Laws and legal authorities have appointed both the health care providers and community workers responsibilities but with the way they were put in action and the pressure from the unemployed health workers the attention has been diverted from the main goal of providing services to the raise capital to hire additional staff. The things that matters to the planners and to the general public are the quality and costs of the service packages.

(Hansen & Tobler, 2008). Therefore, costs and access to medical care still stays a question because it is estimated that there are around 1 million more health care providers needed in Africa to meet the health related problems because there are only 70% medical doctors, 40% nurses and very few midwives located in the urban areas