Healthcare facilities and their staff ensure to establish effective emergency preparedness and response interventions to respond to disasters, terrorist attacks, and pandemic outbreaks. According to McNeill et al. (2018), health emergency preparedness is the capacity of the public health system and community to prevent and respond to healthcare emergencies. With adequate preparedness, healthcare providers become better equipped to handle health emergencies when they occur. Healthcare and emergency preparedness among rural communities are still low despite awareness of upstream readiness and social determinants such as inadequate resources, remoteness, and limited access to healthcare services.
How I Provided Nursing Care that Addressed the Psychosocial Needs of Rural Communities
I provided nursing care to address the psychological needs of rural communities during the pandemic to conduct door-to-door screenings and education on the COVID-19 virus. The hallmark of this exercise was to burst the myths and misinformation about the cause of the virus, its spread, and the adverse effects of vaccination. The door-to-door screenings and education proved instrumental in recommending the need for testing the vaccine to rural households. We managed to screen 200 people in two villages on the first day during the activity, with only 3% refusing screening services.
Our health team came across an elderly patient who was gasping for breath during the screening services and rushed him to the emergency department. Upon arrival, we conducted a triage on the patient to determine the severity of his condition and later registered him to the emergency room. I did compressions in the center of the patient’s chest to press down about two inches. I did this with my shoulders directly over my hands while keeping my arms straight to help the patient stay alive.
My health team provided nursing services that addressed the psychological needs of clients by creating and expanding telehealth services. The telehealth services included psychiatry that involved video communication with rural communities. For instance, telepsychiatry services facilitated communication and monitoring of patients through technology in real-time. According to Butkus et al. (2020), video-based telepsychiatry services help meet patients’ needs amidst the uncertainties resulting from the pandemic at affordable rates. The intervention was crucial in integrating behavioral health care and primary care to mitigate the spread of the virus.
How Social Determinants Contributed to the Health Status of a Vulnerable Client I Served
Social determinants of health such as poverty, low literacy, and unequal access to healthcare impact healthcare outcomes of vulnerable populations. One of the social determinants of health that contributed to the health status of a vulnerable client I served during my practicum experience is poverty. According to Khan et al. (2018), rural communities live on minimum wage and have generic poverty that influences access to care. This social determinant was reflected while I was offering door-to-door screaming in a mass testing exercise to mitigate the spread of the virus. I learned that the vulnerable client had limited resources to regularly visit healthcare facilities for screening and testing. As a result, the client foregoes preventive care and wait till their conditions are severe before seeking medication.
More often than not, people living in rural communities have low educational attainments and literacy levels. According to McNeill et al. (2018), low literacy levels are associated with less preventive care and high hospitalization. While working with the rural community during the pandemic, I discovered that the vulnerable client had low adherence to measures such as hand washing hygiene, wearing face masks, and social distancing that reduces the spread of the virus. The implications of low literacy on this population included increased hospitalization and emergency care use.
Low insurance coverage among rural communities is another social determinant to healthcare. The vulnerable client I served during my practicum experience was uninsured and did not receive preventive services for cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and chronic conditions. Lack of medical cover also deterred the vulnerable client from seeking healthcare services when it is needed due to the high costs involved. Overall, the limited insurance cover among the rural communities leads to inadequate access to recommended care and poor health outcomes.
The Support Agency I Would Recommend for the Population in Future
The support agency that I would recommend for the rural community in the future is the guide to Rural Health Care Collaboration and Coordination (HRSA). This support agency coordinates the efforts of community health centers, rural hospitals, local public healthcare departments, and other stakeholders to identify and address community health needs (Kearly et al., 2020). HRSA aims to improve access to healthcare by adopting coordination strategies to deliver quality care. The support agency will help rural communities improve their care outcomes by developing and strengthening care coordination.
The Greatest Concerns about the Rural Population during Natural Disasters
The most significant concern about rural communities is their access to health services during floods and other natural disasters. Floods cause an unprecedented change in the demand for health services. Rural communities affected by floods experience disrupted access to medical services since it destroys roads and communication lines. Floods also increase the risk of infectious diseases by bringing debris and waste that contaminate water and food sources. Rural communities are adversely affected by floods that limit their access to medical services.
In conclusion, rural populations’ health, healthcare, and emergency preparedness are affected by challenges such as poor coordination, limited funding, and geographical barriers. A wide variety of factors such as environment, income, and literacy determine the health of rural populations. The programs and policies to increase rural community preparedness to healthcare and emergencies should focus on addressing the underlying healthcare determinants to focus on upstream activities supporting resilience.
References
Butkus, R., Rapp, K., Cooney, T. G., Engel, L. S., & Health and Public Policy Committee of the American College of Physicians*. (2020). Envisioning a better US health care system for all: reducing barriers to care and addressing social determinants of health. Annals of Internal Medicine, 172(2_Supplement), S50-S59.
Kearly, A., Oputa, J., & Harper-Hardy, P. (2020). Telehealth: an opportunity for state and territorial health agencies to improve access to needed health services. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 26(1), 86-90.
Khan, Y., O’Sullivan, T., Brown, A., Tracey, S., Gibson, J., Généreux, M.,… & Schwartz, B. (2018). Public health emergency preparedness: a framework to promote resilience. BMC Public Health, 18(1), 1-16. Web.
McNeill, C. C., Killian, T. S., Moon, Z., Way, K. A., & Betsy Garrison, M. E. (2018). The relationship between perceptions of emergency preparedness, disaster experience, healthcare provider education, and emergency preparedness levels. International Quarterly Of Community Health Education, 38(4), 233-243.