Discuss about the Health and Society for Australian National Health Priorities.
Obesity and overweight within the Australians are the biggest concerns and act as major health issue. The children that belong from a disadvantaged and low-income background are at a greater amount of risk for being obese or overweight. This has a profound impact on the lives of the children as well as their families. This further entrenches the social and the health disadvantage (Ncoss.org.au, 2018). The obesity statistics in the Nepean Blue Mountains suggest that the 5.8 percent of the deaths occurring in this region is caused due to obesity. The average BMI of people living in this region have a BMI of 40. The death rates in both the females and the males in this region is more compared to the eight other metropolitan health regions (Dailytelegraph.com.au 2018). The study focuses on the obesity of the general population and the nurse-led intervention that will help in the reduction of the incidence of obesity in the NSW region especially in the Nepean Blue Mountains.
Between the year 2017 to 2018, the rate of obesity and underweight has increased gradually increased from 51 percent to 53 percent in the New South Wales area. Thus, based on this trends it can be derived that the rate of overweight has remained stable. In the year 2008, the rate of overweight is 33.6 percent while in the year 2017 the rate of overweight is 32.5 percent. Further, it has been seen that the 32 percent adults (25 percent of females and 39 percent of males) were overweight in the year 2017 and 21 percent were found to be obese (20 percent of males and 21 percent of females). Excessive body weight is an important public health problem in Australia and this risk develops into a chronic disorder and this increases with the increase in the levels of the excess weight (Healthstats.nsw.gov.au 2018).
Australia’s National Health Priority areas are the conditions and the diseases that significantly contribute to the burden of illness and this results into high financial and social costs that are imposed on the remote, rural, regional communities. The targeted conditions and the diseases were chosen because along with the focused and appropriate attention, vital gains can be made in the rural and the healthy population. It has been seen that more than half of the Australians are making an effort to lose weight. Only about 30 percent of the Australians that are obese (based on the BMI data) described their status of the weight of obese. Furthermore, it has also been seen that only one person out of three is concerned about their body weight (Garvan Institute of Medical Research 2018). The National Health Priority Areas (NPHA) were established in the year 2000 and it was established due to the response of the World Health Organization. The NPHAs were agreed by the Australian Health Ministry Advisory Council between the year 1996 to 2012. There are 9 items in the NHPA and Obesity was included in the list in the year 2008 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2018).
In Australia, the beverages and the energy-dense foods that have a high content of sugar, salt and fat are widely available. An imbalanced diet that contains high amounts of fat, sugar and salt often result in increased rate of cancer, gallbladder stone, dental decay, osteoporosis, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, insulin resistance, atherosclerosis, stroke and ischaemic heart diseases. At the same time, it has also been found that less than 1 out of 10 Australian eat vegetables that are enough for a single day. Less than half of the Australian population eat fruits according to the guidelines. Inadequate vegetable and fruit intake will lead to the neurodegenerative diseases, dementia and coronary heart diseases. Diet-related health outcomes now follow a social gradient is Australia and internationally Australians fall into the high-income groups with high levels of education and better living conditions. These Australians eat balanced and a healthy diet that leads to better health outcomes. However, it is important to note that the people residing in the socioeconomically disadvantaged and remote areas, people living with the disabilities, minority culture groups and the Indigenous Australians are less likely in a position to buy healthy food. Thus their tendency to eat healthy food will reduce to a great extent and are more likely to develop chronic diseases, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, poor oral health and more likely to become obese or overweight (Aihw.gov.au 2018).
Practice nurses are the enrolled or the registered nurses that are employed or retained for the purpose of general practice. The nursing intervention moves through the SWOT analysis in order to find the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats.
Strengths- The nurse led intervention will include the identifying the lifestyle issues and the possible diet issues that contribute to the obesity and at the same time will provide necessary health education for the whole family. Wherever it is appropriate, the families will receive the Medicare-funded from the government and the follow up will be done by the practice nurse. The practice nurse will measure the effectiveness of the education imparted to them and at the same time will develop strategies for addressing the issues of obesity. Whereas, if obesity-related health issues are left untreated willed to health-related conditions. Practice nurses will undertake the undertake the motivational interviewing and will provide brief solution based sessions along with the families that will be able to discuss the potentially sensitive issues with the parents. The practice nurses, registered nurses will assess the situation and initiate a care plan according to the care needs of the clients within the scope of the nursing practice. This nursing care plan will also include the Medicare funding rebate (Newman et al. 2015). The primary school nurses will primary health care services to the children that are belonging to the age group of 5 to 12 years. The primary healthcare will include the care services for the purpose of health information and promotion. The school nurses will engage will engage in general health centre management, resource/networking and referral, school community development activities, health promotion, health counselling and clinical healthcare (Gerards et al. 2012). The secondary school nurses will be play a major role in the reducing the negative effects of the negative healthcare outcomes and will help the young people to reduce the behaviour related to the negative health effects. The negative health effects will include the injuries, suicide, depression, obesity, eating disorder, smoking, alcohol and drug abuse. The role of the nurse will include assisting the young people to make the healthy choices, school community development activities, health promotion and planning, health counselling (Pbert et al. 2013). The community health nursing will include the combining general nursing practice and primary health care. The community health nurses will work with the local communities for the purpose of health promotion and prevention of illness (Koniak-Griffin et al. 2015). The occupational health nurses will provide the safety services and the programs for the community workers and the community groups. The occupational health nurse will have an integral role in the in promoting and restoring of health and the prevention of injury, illness and the providing scope for the emergency preparedness, environmental health and disease management. it will also include the disease planning with respect to the human technological and natural hazard (Sargent, Forrest and Parker 2012).
Weakness- The nurse led intervention requires a large number of nursing workforce and it is widely known fact that in Australia there is a lack of the availability of the nursing workforce. This acts as one of the major barriers to the delivery of the healthcare to the wider community. A large number of people that belongs from a community requires specific care depending on the wide range of the ailments that they suffer from. Thus, in order to provide individualised care, there is a big requirement for the skilled health workers and nurses. Providing health care provisions for the wider community, population and the children will require a large amount of funding from the government and this requires persistent funding (Hoare, Mills and Francis 2012).
Opportunities- the nurse-led intervention will provide root level engagement with the individuals, school children and adults and people that are associated with an occupation that can lead to greater level of obesity. The nurse led intervention is based on providing education that is an integral part of the solving obesity-related issues (Bryant, Hess and Bowen 2015).
Threats- Nurse-led intervention is one of the major contributors to primary health care and it includes the nurses of all levels. Thus in order engage with the people at the community level it is important to note that the language and the different culture acts as a barrier in the delivery of the healthcare (Hart and Mareno 2014).
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the obesity is the biggest concern for the Australian general population. The obesity-related health issues are one of the major health issues that has affected the adults and the children. The social determinants of obesity are the bad eating habits, lack of physical activities and improper diet. A majority of the health issues related to the obesity is contributed by the calorie intensive food, foods containing excessive salt and sugar.
Reference
Aihw.gov.au, 2018. [online] Aihw.gov.au. Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/9844cefb-7745-4dd8-9ee2-f4d1c3d6a727/19787-AH16.pdf.aspx?inline=true [Accessed 5 Jun. 2018].
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018. First report on the National Health Priority Areas, full report, Related material – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [online] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/health-care-quality-performance/national-health-priority-areas-first-report/related-material [Accessed 5 Jun. 2018].
Bryant, P.H., Hess, A. and Bowen, P.G., 2015. Social determinants of health related to obesity. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 11(2), pp.220-225.
Dailytelegraph.com.au, 2018. ‘Obesity takes 10 years off your life’. [online] Dailytelegraph.com.au. Available at: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/penrith-press/were-falling-behind-in-battle-of-the-bulge-health-authorities-warn/news-story/361e0a43db16f824ea5e9d2cf7036186 [Accessed 7 Jun. 2018].
Garvan Institute of Medical Research, 2018. National Health Priority Areas | Garvan Institute of Medical Research. [online] Garvan Institute of Medical Research. Available at: https://www.garvan.org.au/our-work/rural-health/priority-areas [Accessed 5 Jun. 2018].
Gerards, S.M., Dagnelie, P.C., Jansen, M.W., De Vries, N.K. and Kremers, S.P., 2012. Barriers to successful recruitment of parents of overweight children for an obesity prevention intervention: a qualitative study among youth health care professionals. BMC family practice, 13(1), p.37.
Hart, P.L. and Mareno, N., 2014. Cultural challenges and barriers through the voices of nurses. Journal of clinical nursing, 23(15-16), pp.2223-2233.
Healthstats.nsw.gov.au, 2018. HealthStats NSW Overweight or obesity in adults. [online] Healthstats.nsw.gov.au. Available at: https://www.healthstats.nsw.gov.au/Indicator/beh_bmi_age [Accessed 5 Jun. 2018].
Hoare, K.J., Mills, J. and Francis, K., 2012. The role of Government policy in supporting nurse?led care in general practice in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia: an adapted realist review. Journal of advanced Nursing, 68(5), pp.963-980.
Koniak-Griffin, D., Brecht, M.L., Takayanagi, S., Villegas, J., Melendrez, M. and Balcázar, H., 2015. A community health worker-led lifestyle behavior intervention for Latina (Hispanic) women: Feasibility and outcomes of a randomized controlled trial. International journal of nursing studies, 52(1), pp.75-87.
Ncoss.org.au, 2018. [online] Ncoss.org.au. Available at: https://www.ncoss.org.au/sites/default/files/public/policy/ObesityReport_Final.pdf [Accessed 5 Jun. 2018].
Newman, L., Baum, F., Javanparast, S., O’Rourke, K. and Carlon, L., 2015. Addressing social determinants of health inequities through settings: a rapid review. Health Promotion International, 30(suppl_2), pp.ii126-ii143.
Pbert, L., Druker, S., Gapinski, M.A., Gellar, L., Magner, R., Reed, G., Schneider, K. and Osganian, S., 2013. A school nurse?delivered intervention for overweight and obese adolescents. Journal of School Health, 83(3), pp.182-193.
Sargent, G.M., Forrest, L.E. and Parker, R.M., 2012. Nurse delivered lifestyle interventions in primary health care to treat chronic disease risk factors associated with obesity: a systematic review. obesity reviews, 13(12), pp.1148-1171.
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