Promoting Health and Ensuring Wellness in Family Self-Care - Coursework Example

? Nursing Nursing Rural communities consist of a small number of individuals residing in remotely large geographical regions compared to urban settings. This characteristic is seen to have adverse impacts on the health care delivery systems. Nursing practitioners have to first develop a clear understanding of the way of life of rural communities as well as their environments. Low population densities recorded within rural communities do not give these regions the capabilities to support public infrastructure and they will have unlimited or even inadequate public utilities (McNeely & Shreffler, 1998). This factor will have impacts on the health status of the individuals who reside in these rural communities as well as influence health care services and affect delivery of medical services. This paper will address the areas of family health care that play a vital role in promoting health and ensuring wellness in family self-care. Nurses are encouraged to take upon a more pro-active approach when they are working with families, whether in an urban or a rural setting. This will ensure quality health care promotion is the main focus in most families. Recent research shows that there are changes which are taking place in family health care as well as family life. Research further indicates that there is an upcoming international perspective in which individuals and the community at large feels the need for recognition of the common attributes about family life across the different cultures as well as promotion of family health issues in the nation. Nursing practice is aimed at ensuring managed care in rural and family health. Nurses continue to face challenges in delivery of medical services to individuals and families residing in the remote and rural communities. These challenges inhibit nurses from delivering quality nursing care to individuals in rural setting. Limited medical resources present challenges in rural communities. The affects of limited medical resources are worsened by the rising need of ensuring cost containment and the inability of nurses to establish an equal media for accessing medical services (Bushy, 2002). Nurses are making great efforts towards expanding the scope of their nursing practices. This enables them to take part in functions that require advanced practice and skills so that they can effectively fulfill the needs of individuals who reside in medically underserved regions. The distance between the patients and the medical providers, and the low population density contribute to the remoteness of the rural environments. There is a great diversity in terms of economic, social and cultural patterns between rural and urban communities. The diversity has been identified as the main issue that has brought about disparities in health care systems in different geographic locations. In most rural communities, nurses are expected to be the sole care givers since there are few or even no physicians available. The rural nurses, therefore, have to develop a variety of virtues that will guide them in the understanding and ability to provide adequate health care to rural patients and families. Nurses in rural communities have adapted resilience in addition to adaptability, resourcefulness and creativity. It is because of this that they are enabled to be expert generalists. Rural nurses have also developed a great attribute of knowing about the formal and informal resources available in the rural community in which they are based. They have identified how to use the resources effectively and sustainably for the sole benefit of the rural population. Nurses in the rural settings should still be able to know how they could care for patients with various diseases and health conditions. The nurses should be flexible as well as excellent team players so that they can handle difficult medical conditions with expertise and function more effectively in nursing roles that continue to expand. Nurses continue to face challenges in situations of delivering nursing services and health care to residents in rural settings. This situation is made worse in circumstances where a patient lives far away from a nursing practitioner. These challenges have influenced the need of development of effective policies in the rural health care delivery systems. Policy initiatives have been implemented that aim at reducing medical costs, improving access to medical services, ensuring quality medical services to patients and improving consumer satisfaction (Mueller, 2002). Nurse family partnership involves comprehensive and intensive home visitations by nurses so they can monitor their patients’ progress. Family care depends on various human and health services for one to achieve positive medical results. Rural nursing is aimed at serving low income population that resides in remote areas and, therefore, is not able to access medical services. Nurses are able to work with patients and their families in their homes so as to enable them to cope with as well as improve the care they provide to patients. Partnerships are encouraged in nursing since they act as mechanisms through which some of the health care challenges in rural settings can be solved. Nurses are required to entail collaborative skills as this will give them advantages of taking part in social changes, development of policies and the community, coalition building and group facilitation. Nurses in a rural setting have been required to partner with various clients, professionals as well as community organizations as this will enable them to design, implement and deliver effective medical services to their patients. Theoretical foundations of rural and family nursing continue to evolve throughout the years as there is a great need for the development of a health care system that gives great consideration to the needs and perceptions of an individual to whom care is being given (Shannon, 1998). Assumptions have been made where it was believed that care provided to a patient in a rural setting will be similar to that of a patient in an urban setting. Rural dwellers have also been seen to be self-reliant and they would often resist help or services that are provided to them from individuals they regard as outsiders. It was also believed that rural people preferred to obtain medical care from individuals who are familiar to them. These findings made contributions towards efforts being developed to ensure quality and equal medical services are available to all individuals in the rural settings. It also enabled nurses to develop their nursing skills and they were then able to effectively handle the great diffusion of roles they experience in the rural environments. Nurses were also able to communicate effectively with their patients in the rural settings and this gave them a clear understanding of the needs and experiences. Challenges experienced by residents in the rural settings, for instance, access and distance to medical resources, have certain impacts on the capabilities of nurses to provide medical services to their patients. Interventions developed in this context should be aimed at helping patients in the rural settings achieve physical, mental as well as emotional fitness. Nurses should ensure they discuss relevant factors that may have contributed towards development of a certain disease or condition. Rural patients should be provided with relevant information on what actions they might take to achieve health based on their rural lifestyles. Research in rural nursing provides a broad understanding of the characteristics of health care systems in rural settings. Nurses are also able to understand what is required from them by their patients as well as for effective practice in nursing in the rural settings. This, therefore, acts as a guide in creating a comprehensive framework for practicing nursing in a rural setting. Health care services that are provided to individuals in rural settings should be modified to suit the patient’s preferences regarding help he/she may receive from the family or community. Nurses can achieve this by providing clear instructions, relief and support to a patient’s family as they are the primary care providers. The formal health care system has to be modified as well to fit into the informal health care system. Nurses should provide adequate advice to residents by ensuring there are adequate reference materials. Most health care needs of patients in rural settings cannot be addressed effectively through use of nursing models that have been developed in urban settings. Nurses, therefore, require unique approaches so as to efficiently solve health issues of the rural population. Provision of health care services to patients who reside in the sparsely populated areas has enabled rural nurses to attain the goal of building a theory process that will allow identification of common and different features in the field. Studies that are done in rural nursing aim at building comprehensive knowledge of individual cultures. Understanding the cultures of rural communities is important since a nurse will understand their health beliefs, practices and values. Experience has revealed that understanding cultures of individuals and the meanings that different individuals attach to life experiences is an important attribute of rural nursing knowledge. References Bushy, A. (2002). International perspectives on rural nursing: Australia, Canada, USA. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 10, 104–111. Huff, R. M, & Kline, M. V. (1998). Promoting health in multicultural populations: A handbook for multicultural practitioners. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Indian Health Service. (2005). Health care services are not always available to Native Americans. Retrieved from http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-05-789. McNeely, A. G., & Shreffler, M. J. (1998). Familiarity. Conceptual basis for rural nursing. New York: Springer. Mueller, K. J. (2002). Rural health policy: Past as a prelude to the future. Handbook of rural health. New York: Kluwer Academic. National Institute of Health. (2006). Taking action: Health promotion and outreach with American Indians and Alaska Natives. Retrieved from http://www.niams.nih.gov/about_us/Mission_and_Purpose/Community_Outreach/Multicultural_Outreach/AIAN_WG/NIH_AIAN_Lit_Rev.asp. Shannon, A. M. (1998). Developing an educational structure for rural nursing research and theory. Conceptual basis for rural nursing. New York: Springer. Read More