Strategy to Overcome Ramadan Fasting and Homesickness Problems Essay (Article)

Ramadan is the most celebrated period in Muslim society across the world, which involves a month-long fasting and praying. As a cultural practice, Ramadan plays a crucial role in bringing the Muslim community together, more so from a religious point of view. However, the practice brings various social and health issues especially to the Muslim students related to fasting and homesickness.

These issues have attracted the attention of nurses, who have established various strategies to provide sustainable solutions. In this paper, focus will be on strategies to be implemented is promotion of the health of Muslim students studying in Australia. It is to be done in collaboration with the mosque in the city of Gold Coast and Saudi Students Social Club. This work therefore brings out the strategies in working with the target group and the appropriateness and effectiveness of the health promotion project. The work also highlights the experience of working as part of a group, including aspects of self-awareness, communication and inter-personal skills.

Experiences of Muslim students during the month of Ramadan

To come up with an appropriate strategy, it is significant to describe what characterizes the month of Ramadan for Muslim students in Australia. First, most Muslim international students feel homesick since Ramadan in their home countries is celebrated as a family affair where all family members gather to break their daily fast through sharing of meal (Richardson, 2003). Secondly, social isolation is experienced during the Ramadan as most Muslim students are used to socializing with their non-Muslim friends; and since their non-Muslim friends go on with their social activities, their Muslim counterparts are made to feel isolated (Khazindar, 2003).

This is also experienced at the end of Ramadan during which this ought to be a family social celebration. Here, since most of their families are away, the students end up feeling home-sick and socially cut off from their individual families. Thirdly, there is the challenge of balancing between their studies and active Qur’an reading during Ramadan. Ramadan is a period when most Muslims are supposed to refrain from food and drink, sex, listening to music, harsh words, or dissensions. They are instead supposed to practice charity, prayer and devoted Qur’an reading (Mathews, 2008, p.356). Therefore, observing these practices may prove challenging to some Muslim students especially due to their fixed academic schedule and non-observance of the Ramadan by their non-Muslim friends.

Strategies in working with the target group

In community health contexts, nurses can carry out their responsibilities as members of teams. This may include not only working with members from health care, but also members from other non-health oriented settings such as religious organizations, schools, political systems, among others (Hitchcock, 2003, p.462).

To effectively engage and consult with Muslim students in Australia concerning overcoming the problems encountered during fasting, the nurse ought to employ several strategies. First, the nurse should be in a position to communicate properly with the target group (Hitchcock, 2003, p.462). Since not all of them may be conversant with health related terminologies, the nurse should work at conveying the information in the most appropriate manner to ensure that everyone benefits from the same to implement it effectively.

Secondly, the strategy employed should entail good problem solving skills. Apart from engaging the Muslim students to find out alternative solutions to the problems of fasting and homesickness, the nurse should also engage other health professionals mainly from the Muslim community who can evaluate the issues and raise the possible solutions. Together, all team members can opt for one agreed upon solution.

Thirdly, joint co-ordination should be practiced. In collaborating with other members from the mosque, other health professionals, and the Muslim students, the nurse should guard against allowing each party to come up with their alternatives and then informing others of the same. The nurse should rather encourage concerted efforts from both team members and the students to come up with common means of combating the health related issues.

To accelerate solutions to Muslim students’ problems, the nurse may need to network with people from other disciplines, political entities, and community organizations. Primarily, intelligence and soberness on the part of the nurse will assist in overcoming challenging issues such as financial constraints and religious influence that may make collaboration and consultation a tricky exercise (Hitchcock, 2003, p.462).

Similar to counseling and other professional duties that entail problem solving, the community health nurse is charged with the duty of consultation. He/she should make the Muslim students identify their problems and help them to make proper decisions. A nurse consultant provides decision-making assistance by being a good source of enlightenment and preferences. Since the nurses are perceived as experts in health, they should provide information that should enable the Muslim students to make decisions based on the available alternatives. To be a successful nurse, motivated decisions should be reached at to make the Muslim students continue implementing them in his/her absence.

In dealing with a community client like the case of Muslim students, the roles of the nursing consultant are multi-faceted. To begin with, the nurse should be a leader; this means influencing others towards achieving a specific aim. Based on professional knowledge and interpersonal interactions, the nursing consultant should establish informal power. Secondly, the Muslim students and members of the mosque should have confidence in the nurse due to his unique skills that can help address health related problems faced during the Ramadan.

Thirdly, the nurse should work as a coordinator; this means having the ability to devise, support, influence, motivate, and organize the entire process of consultation. Fourthly, the nurse should act as a resource person. This entails providing enlightenment in the use of some resources that may help the Muslim students make informed decisions from the available options that will go a long way to solve health related problems. Fifthly, specialized knowledge and skills makes a nurse to be a clinical specialist where she can apply this to the situation.

Lastly, a nurse consultant should be a researcher, as this is the main duty of a consultant and entails creating a database, assessing and evaluating client complications or providing a research proposal regarding overcoming homesickness and fasting complications. An additional role of the nursing consultant involves giving relevant pieces of advice regarding the current problems, though not being engaged in the outcome. This means standing-by without necessarily being in direct control of things.

Even though available to influence decision-making and offer advice, the consultant nurse may not possess the mandate to effect the change. In this way, the Muslim will give the nurse consultant an opportunity to internalize the problem but they will still reserve the right to make the last decision. Generally, for credibility to be sustained, the nurse should balance both objectivity and supportive role.

Strengths and weaknesses of target group consultation and potential solutions

From the ongoing discussion, it is clear that, in addressing the issue at hand, the nurse has some strength. First, by being an effective instrument of communication, a nurse is in a better position to convey the problems at hand more articulately. Secondly, being an expert in health matters gives the nurse an upper hand in pointing out the specific problems, thus putting the students in a better position to choose a desired alternative. Thirdly, the nurse has an expertise back up from other health professionals who may be allowed to be present, implying that more knowledge and skills are at disposal that can, if well articulated, influence the students’ decision making regarding homesickness and fasting during Ramadan.

Fourthly, being an educator, the community nurse has an avenue through which the Muslim students can be made to make informed choices concerning the issues at hand. However, the main difficulty likely to be encountered by the nurse is that, being a Muslim community, most of the lifestyle choices are influenced by what the Qur’an defines (Lundy, 2009, p. 1089). For instance, an issue such as fasting during Ramadan is clearly stipulated in the Qur’an and any adjustments may be difficult to make. A community nurse therefore finds himself torn between providing relevant dietary information and adhering to what is determined by the Islam religion (Thomas, 1997).

Another problem encountered is coming up with decisions to solve the problem of fasting that may require adjustment in the school schedule. In a bid to solve this issue, a community nurse may seek to indulge the school administration in their meeting with the Muslim students or may suggest that the university administration be presented with the suggestions of solutions to the fasting problems after discussion with the Muslim students.

Justification and appropriateness of implemented health promotion strategy

Given that this is a problem affecting a group, the community nurse can only approach it through involving the Muslim students affected and the relevant authority in the mosque. This approach is suitable since it directly involves the parties concerned and gives them an opportunity to make informed choices from what the nurse presents to them. Moreover, provision of meals cooked by Muslim families through the mosque is appropriate mainly because during the Ramadan, most Muslims break their fasts in the presence of other family members. Therefore, letting the Muslim families provide these meals is a way of minimizing the homesickness of Muslim students.

For instance, arranging group breakfast for Muslim students during Ramadan is very appropriate. Creation of group breakfasts will therefore enhance a sense of togetherness, increase love between them and show their consideration for others (The Islamic Bulletin, 2001). Moreover, provision of social services by the club members aided by the community nurse will relieve the Muslim students from the alienation they experience from their friends as well as their homesickness. Indeed, meeting and interacting with others during Ramadan is a very crucial activity (Hawi, 2010).

Effectiveness of number of target group participants engaged in strategy

It will be fruitless if the community nurse’s strategy engaged only a handful of people. The collaboration with the Mosque in the city of Gold Coast and Saudi Students Social club is therefore plausible enough in dealing with the issues at hand. This includes involving a greater population of the university community. The importance of this is that, those in greatest need are able to receive the most effective care, the principle of equity, social practice is put to use, and rare resources are delivered in a place and situation where they can guarantee maximum health benefits (Rowe, 2001, p.1).

The nurse’s effectiveness through self-insight and as a team player

The community nurse’s competency is vividly expressed in his ability to work both independently and as part of a group. Independently, the nurse is able to plan and communicate effectively about the best way to solve the problems affecting the Muslim students. This does not only show the nurse’s ability to practice reflective strategy for complex cases, but also his ability to apply leadership and management aspects in a group setting as well as client centered care (The OCNE Nursing competencies, 2010 ). As part of a group, the nurse coordinates with both the Saudi Students Social Club and other Muslim members from the mosque.

The ability to organize family members from the mosque to help provide meals during Ramadan is not only demonstrable leadership skill, but also an element of teamwork, which is essential for success in community nursing (Bynum, 2002). Moreover, encouraging group interactions also helps to treat homesickness (Thurber, 2007).

Ways of overcoming homesickness

During the Ramadan, international Muslim students normally feel cut off from their own families whom they are supposed to observe and celebrate the event with. Due to this, homesickness normally sets in. To solve this problem, a number steps are recommended. First, when breaking the fasts, the students should be together with their fellow Muslim students, during which they can make prayers and go through the Qur’an as they meals.

Secondly, during part of the Ramadan period, arrangements can be made so that parents can visit their Muslim children where they can interact and participate together in all activities surrounding the occasion. Thirdly, the Muslim students can organize social events such as interactive sessions outside the university where they can socialize as well as engage in Ramadan related events (The international eye 2010). Fourthly, the Muslim students should be encouraged to engage in some activities during this time such as writing a letter to their family members, making a call or looking at a family picture. Finally, the students should also be encouraged to think and consult their friends to see their point of view on these (Thurber and Walton, 2007).

Conclusion

The effectiveness of the strategy that can help implement a health promotional method that can solve fasting and homesickness among Muslim students during Ramadan is ingrained in the nurse’s professional make-up. The nurse’s qualities such as being a leader, consultant, coordinator, researcher, among others make him effective and suitable for the task. Moreover, the nurse’s involvement also ensures a proper step in making informed choices concerning the issues at hand.

References

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