Global Health Issue: Antimicrobial Resistance - Essay Example

"Global Health Issue: Antimicrobial Resistance" is a perfect example of a paper on care. At the beginning of the year, the World Health Organization listed antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among the top three greatest threats to global health. AMR has many implications that make it a global health issue. First is the fact that it threatens the oblivious confidence in the contemporary pharmacopeia. Antimicrobials have brought an unprecedented fall in mortality and morbidity associated with numerous pathogens.

There has been a corresponding increase in the overall population life expectancy. AMR however now threatens the entire human race with a darker scourge of infectious diseases in the future than in the past. Many countries in the developing world are yet to enjoy the full benefit of antimicrobials. The fact that most drugs may not be active any longer raises serious questions about the survival of the pharmaceutical industry as they will need to invent new drugs for formerly vanquished diseases.

There are also socio-economic issues that come up involving the fact that stronger drugs will be more expensive and inaccessible to most of the developing world and middle to low-income communities (Nawrat, 2019). There is widespread knowledge that AMR is a problem but while it does occur out of natural selection, there is much human input that propagates AMR. First, is the issue of over-prescription by physicians, and second is self-prescription and non-compliance to the regimen. Moreover, there is less than optimal overall infection prevention in the global population causing frequent use of antimicrobial drugs.

There have been efforts to curb the issue by policy action planning from the WHO aiming at reducing the threat of AMR. The policy plan targets the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Establishing a continuum of quality assured responsible and safe use of antimicrobial drugs may be the first step towards reducing the compromising effects of AMR in healthcare. The global action plan aims to improve on several areas such as awareness, surveillance, and research on AMR. The action plan also targets innovation in the future on potentially stronger drugs to accommodate accessibility to all economic communities with the aim of sustainable investment into drug development and research (Wernli, 2017).

All medical practice should prioritize access to antimicrobials without necessarily reducing their use especially in the developing countries that are still battling killer diseases such as tuberculosis. In the future, it may be important to develop more population and pathogen-focused innovation of drugs to make them affordable to communities based on their community health needs. AMR is a potential risk to global health security and may be worsened by unequal societies. It calls for universal policy action on irrational use of known drugs, investment, innovation, development, and security issues pertaining to antimicrobial drugs in the future if the healthcare sector is to forestall or be prepared for the next phase of pharmacovigilance (Longest, 2016). Q2.Nurses have a central role in all the major international health promotion programs and plans such as the Millennium development goals for the global population.

The most obvious role of nurses in the health promotion of the global community is in reducing child mortality, making maternal care better, and combating communicable diseases such as malaria and Tuberculosis. Nurses also have a role in supportive care of patients ailing from chronic conditions and have a role in prevention and creating awareness of risk factors for non-communicable diseases. Nurses in low and middle-income societies have a greater responsibility to educate and create working interventions for common health challenges.

Service is however not the only role nurses have to the global community. In the context of globalization, nurses also have an increased need for communication and cultural exchange to prevent disenfranchisement that often occurs in the lower socioeconomic castes. Nurses have a role in helping the health sector to understand the health needs and trends that arise out of globalization and in developing interventions to counteract the negative trends and propagate the positive ones. Nursing is critical to all the global health issues that require cooperation among health care professionals.

Nurses are inherently part of every care pathway and are therefore integral in the response, planning, and prevention of most health-related problems from the ward level to the global village level (Edmonson, 2017). Nurses are particularly aware of the implications of health policies because they work with all types of patients with unequal access to healthcare. It means that nurses have a role in shaping the international healthcare policy framework by working together with governments and non-profits.

Nurses are aware of the similarities in the needs of the patients and have a better knowledge about how global healthcare is all connected. Nurses, therefore, have a role and responsibility in eliminating health inequalities in the face of multiple social determinants of health. Nurse has the duty to use their strategic position to assess not just individuals but also populations and advocate for a strength based approach to pro-social health changes in the global community. Nurses also need to practice ethical nursing as competence and embrace leadership to create links in the global network of health professionals that support and promote global health in the future even in the face of greater challenges (Longest, 2016).