Essay Example on Providing Health Care in Underdeveloped Countries

Provision of healthcare in underdeveloped countries faces many challenges as compared to the developed countries. In underdeveloped countries, a lot of people suffer and die from avoidable diseases and infections such as measles, malnutrition and complications during child birth. These suffering are as a result of many people being poor hence not being able to afford basic needs such as medications. Governments in underdeveloped countries are also ineffective and corrupt to the point of not being able to deliver health and medical related supplies. Most countries around the world have signed a treaty with the United Nations where they have committed themselves to ensuring that every citizen of the country has the right to good health. However, sometimes the provision of health care services is hindered by some challenges such as economic and political challenges. Economic challenges involve the country being poor and lacking resources to appoint whereby it has the will to but cannot afford to provide health care to its citizens. Due to unfavorable economic conditions in underdeveloped countries, individual citizens also feel a challenge taking care of their health needs since they cannot afford it. Political challenges in underdeveloped countries also hinder the provision of health care whereby most countries have been engaging in political instabilities and civil wars hence making hard for the government to provide health care services (Frenk, 1997).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

A number of strategies can be employed in order to solve the challenges of economy and politics that disadvantage a country in provision of health care services. First, the countries which have poor economies need economic and medical aid in order to make sure that they are helped by donor agencies such as the WHO and US aid. Little can be done on the part of calming political tensions in a country except encouraging the warring factions to use dialogue in order to solve their differences. Studies on the health status of underdeveloped countries show that health inequalities are a common occurrence. The studies also show that the worlds poorest people are faring on badly, showing how bad health inequalities are persistent and pervasive. Despite deaths from illnesses occurring in all countries including developed, developing and undeveloped, most deaths from preventable diseases and infections occur in underdeveloped countries. Most developing and developed countries have systems in place that are meant to have strategies and plans to curb the diseases or illnesses when they occur. It is a common case whereby diseases that affect only poor countries little or no research is done on them, while diseases which affect developed and developed countries have a lot of research conducted in order to find cure and vaccines as well.

Nurses can use the strategy of holding NGOs accountable for their failures to ensure that people have an access to quality health care. This strategy is effective because of the fact that NGOs have ready access to donor funds hence can be able to sponsor communities and buy for them medicine. Non-governmental organizations also have a lot of influence on countries that they operate in hence can work as mediators and help the warring factions find a truce in order to stop the political instability that may be affecting the way people live and how they are provided with essential health services (Nutbeam, 2000).

References

Frenk, J. (1997). Health transition in middle income countries: new challenges for health care. Oxford Journals , 29-39.

Nutbeam, D. (2000). Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century . Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, 259-267.