Improve Health Outcomes in Rural and Remote Australia Assessment

How can we improve health outcomes in rural and remote Australia?
A clinical problem I am aware of is the lack of available treatment and medical services in rural and remote parts of Australia. People within these communities often are required to travel many kilometres away from home to obtain the treatment or medical service they need. This leads to people being away from family, friends and support networks for long periods of time. At times people will refuse to travel to get treatment and therefore their health will deteriorate. Rural and remote communities struggle with having access to a GP, many specialists are not available in the rural or remote settings. In Rural and remote settings GPs don’t tend to stay for long periods of time. This means that people are not comfortable with the GP they see and will at times not discuss some problems they may have; it can also mean that community members may not see a GP for long periods of time.

I have chosen this topic as it is something close to home for me. I live over 200 kilometres from a major city hospital. I have had to spend time away from my family to receive treatment. A close family friend has terminal cancer, they had to spend over 18 months in Perth to receive treatment. The hardest for them at the time was not having the family and friend support network they needed to get by. I have also worked with the local Indigenous health as an Enrolled Nurse for a small GP clinic run especially for them. Often the clients would express the concern they had over needed to travel to a major city to receive treatment or to have access to medical services. It is often the financial strain, or lack of support they were concerned about. Many would at times decline to travel for treatment and then their health would deteriorate. 
 

This is my peer assignment.

• Explain to ur peer why you have chosen their post
• Provide your own thoughts and ideas on topic
• Find two different journal articles that addreses your peers research question and explain why these articles helpful