Research Paper Example: Challenges Facing Healthcare in Underdeveloped Countries

Provision of adequate healthcare in underdeveloped countries is difficult due various to challenges. For instance, poor leadership results in bureaucracy and embezzlement of funds meant for healthcare purposes. The targets and objectives set primarily for the rural areas mirror those of the healthcare bureaucracies as opposed to being aimed at solving problems of the citizens in extreme poverty. With poor leadership, the issues of lack of resources and infrastructure such as roads also arise. This inadequacy makes specific areas inaccessible. Another critical challenge is ignorance whereby the natives do not advocate for modern medicine. Some people are reluctant to accept current healthcare services due to lack of awareness and thus stick to poor cultural practices that are detrimental to their health. For example, some African communities still practice Female Genital Mutilation and advocate for childbirth by midwives (Bloch, Gary, Rozmovits, & Giambrone, 2011).

Solutions for the challenges listed above include working closely with the communities to know their problems. The leaders should advocate for transparency and allow involvement of Non-Governmental Organizations which have the interests of the people. This way, more infrastructure will be developed, and the resources will be used responsibly (Milstead, 2013). As for the issue of ignorance, it is essential to sit down with people in the villages to explain the importance of using healthcare facilities. For proper communication, locals should be used to deliver the message as opposed to foreigners who may be treated with hostility and limited by language barriers (Koplan et al., 2009).

Nurses could use the strategy of mobile clinics to access more people in the underdeveloped countries. This plan allows them to be able to deliver services such as immunization of children as well as prenatal amenities. This approach could also create a chance for the education of the people to understand the importance of accessing primary health care. Developed countries have the advantage of established infrastructure in comparison to underdeveloped nations. This, therefore, necessitates services to be taken to the people as opposed to waiting for them to come seeking. This shows the difference between the underdeveloped countries and the developed economies like the US (Knickman & Kovner, 2015).

References

Bloch, Gary, Linda Rozmovits, and Broden Giambrone. (2011) "Barriers to primary care responsiveness to poverty as a risk factor for health." BMC family practice 12.1: 62.

Knickman, J. R., & Kovner, A. R. (Eds.). (2015). Health care delivery in the united states (11th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.

Koplan, J. P., Bond, T. C., Merson, M. H., Reddy, K. S., Rodriguez, M. H., Sewankambo, N. K., & Wasserheit, J. N. (2009). Towards a common definition of global health. The Lancet, 373(9679), 1993-1995.

Milstead, J. A. (2013). Advanced practice nurses and public policy, naturally. Health policy and politics: A nurses guide, 1-27.