Nursing Assignment Addressing The Issues Of Fear Towards Vaccines

Question

Task: How can healthcare practitioners use nursing assignment techniques to identify strategies to help overcome the fear towards vaccines?

Answer

Introduction
This nursing assignment investigates the fear towards vaccines among native communities. Refugees are known as the group of people who have moved from one place to the other one, be it region or country, as they were unable to settle into the governing system of their own place. Australia is home to many migrants and refugees that have moved into the country to search for a better environment and peace. Meanwhile, as the health system of the home countries of some of the refugees, it has been observed that they are sometimes sceptical about the healthcare service provided in their countries.

One such issue is their fear of getting vaccines. Therefore, this research topic will identify the key characteristics of the Australian refugee community and their fear of vaccines. Meanwhile, the study will also explore how nurses contribute to them overcoming their fear of vaccines with the help of a "strength-based approach".

Part A
As stated above on this nursing assignment, Australia is home to a vast number of refugees. On the other hand, it can also be observed that the number of refugees per year has been on a decline for the past two years. In 2020, the number of refugees in Australia will amount to 57451 people. Whereas the number of refugees in 2019 was 58529 individuals, it certainly declined by 1.84% (Macrotrends.net, 2022). This took place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, it can also be observed that the COVID-19 pandemic has also taken its toll on the settlement of the refugees. As the healthcare system of many countries failed during this time, they did not have complete faith in the healthcare system of any other country around the world. They did not make an exception to the developed countries either.

Meanwhile, it is also visible that the city of Melbourne in Australia is home to the largest number of refugees in the country. South-eastern Melbourne is known as a prime site for refugees as more than 20000 people of refugee background live within the area. On the other hand, most of the refugees that Australia hosts are from developing or underdeveloped countries (Ziaian et al., 2018). Many individuals from middle-east Asia and Africa settle in Australia to stay far away from their homes and from the government that rules their land. On the other hand, it can also be seen that the country is host to a variety of refugees who have a well-founded fear.

As most of the refugees are from the above-mentioned regions, it can be seen that the refugees are also sceptical about the healthcare services that the Australian government has to offer (Ziaian et al., 2019). However, there are several cases when they have been victims of political unrest and ethnic and religious violence around their countries. Iran and Congo are two counties which offer the most amount of refugees in Australia. On the other hand, refugees also arrive from Countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar (Tankwanchi et al., 2021). Investigations done using this nursing assignment research show that in recent years, it has been observed that these countries have also experienced tribal and religious violence and to experience peace and they settled in Australia. Meanwhile, here are some stateless individuals who live in Australia. However, they are not considered to be Australian citizens despite them being part of the country.

As the healthcare sector of these countries is not sufficient, fear regarding health and curing health-related issues are always in place. On the other hand, due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare sectors of these countries failed as they could not import genuine vaccines and the vaccines imported by them caused more harm to the human body than usual (Mahimbo et al., 2022). The nature of the refugees from these countries is not completely polite, and extremism is often observed within these countries. They demand respect from other communities. Therefore, they also expect the Australian government and society to take extra care of them. On the other hand, the refugee community of Australia are hardworking and is always on the lookout for proper healthcare services (Wei et al., 2021). On the other hand, it can also be observed that the refugees in Australia are highly centred on their family, and they care about the wellbeing of both their family and self.

Therefore, due to the failure of vaccinations within their country, they have a strong sense of fear against vaccination programs and the vaccine itself. Thus, the nurses of various healthcare organisations of Australia have to take initiatives so that they can help them overcome the fear of vaccinations (Kong, Chu & Giles, 2020). Refugees in Australia are also considered to be part of the overall system. Therefore, they require proper attention to their health, and as a result, nurses have to help them take vaccines to cure diseases.

The refugees tend to be selectively acceptable to various elements. On the other hand, they are also highly respectful to their culture. Therefore, if any kind of service or activities affects their cultural views, then they take high offence to it. However, they are respectful towards the individuals who know how to respect their culture and for their people. This makes it an interesting experience for an individual who comes into contact with the refugees (Ghafournia & Easteal, 2018). On the other hand, it might not always be possible to pay attention to every detail regarding the religions of the refugees. Therefore, sometimes it turns out to be a challenging task for the government to provide them effective healthcare services.

Part B
Nurses in the healthcare centres have a responsibility to ensure that the patients or the communities they are providing services to be done properly (Pittaway et al., 2018). This nursing assignment affirms that in Australia, many refugees reside throughout the country. The number of refugees is higher in the city suburbs. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the city hospitals and the nurses within the organisations to properly look after the community while they need services (Pennings & Symons, 2021). It is observed that even though the refugees of Australia try to be polite and welcoming, they are still highly sceptical about the services provided by the Australian government and the society within it. Thus, the nurses have to ensure that they get along well with the refugee community so that they can effectively provide them healthcare services.

In order to achieve this goal, one of the most effective methods applied by the nurses is known as the "strength-based approach". This is an approach that is taken by keeping five core principles in mind. While the nurses try to promote empowerment, hope and self-efficacy, they ensure that they focus on the strengths of both the outer and the inner self of the patients they are catering to (Arat et al., 2021). This also helps the nurses to effectively find out the methods that they can take in order to make sure that they properly serve the patients and minimise their problems as much as possible. On the other hand, it can also be observed that the "strength-based approach" helps to ascertain the goals of the nurses in terms of promoting health and availing a healthy environment where the patient can heal quickly and does not suffer much.

Meanwhile, this nursing assignment observes that the core principles that the "strength-based approach" is based on are known as "Health promotion and healing”, “Person/family centred care”, “Collaborative partnership”, “Empowerment” and “Innate capacities for health and healing” (Berardi et al., 2022). For example, refugees in Australia are highly family-centric, and as a result, they prefer to be highly active when it comes to the provision of healthcare services. Therefore the nurses have to ensure that they provide a high amount of value to the patients and their communities. The refugees do not like it when the entire community of a region is not given proper attention (Petrelli et al., 2018). Therefore, the nurses can provide sympathy to the families of the patients and help them understand that it is necessary for them to take vaccines so that they can improve their health.

Meanwhile, it can also be observed that the strength of the refugee community lies in their ability to endure any type of adverse environment (Khawaja et al., 2019). Therefore, nurses can identify that virtue of theirs and help them understand that in the current society, every individual has suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they have done remarkably well in terms of surviving and without proper assistance from the healthcare providers (Liddell et al., 2021). On the other hand, the nurses can also help them understand that if they make themselves available to take vaccine doses, then they will have a much higher chance of surviving even in the middle of an adverse environment. Therefore, it is also necessary for the healthcare providers and the nurses to understand the need of collaborating and forming partnerships with the refugees (Mason, 2018).

On the other hand, this nursing assignment observes the necessity for the nurses to properly promote the health practices such as taking vaccinations related to covid-19 or any other diseases. In order to achieve this goal, nurses can come ahead and organise various healthcare programs. It can be seen that the Australian refugee community is not technologically adept (Block et al., 2021). Thus, they do not have much opportunity to perform research on any health-related concerns or the impact of vaccinations on their body. As low-quality vaccines did not have much effect on their body in the past, they might assume that all other vaccines are the same and will not have any effect on the bodies of the patients (Cioffi et al., 2022). Therefore, it is also the responsibility of the nurses to reduce the instilled fear of the refugee patients. In order to achieve this goal, they can arrange campaigning programs among them and provide visual demonstrations to them.

Nurses can also form partnership with the refugee by offering them personalised care. As the patients in the refugee community always look for the provision of better healthcare due to them not being able to experience it, nurses should also ensure that they offer them healthcare services by allowing them to look into their overall health condition. It might be possible that the refugees may not be able to understand their health condition (Gibson et al., 2020). However, if the nurses form partnership with the community, they can help them understand the overall conditions. They can also assure them that if they take vaccines, everything will be fixed and they can live a happy and healthy life. However, the nurses should also be highly respectful to the culture the refugees belong to (Ayre et al., 2021).

This nursing assignment proposes that nurses can provide effective and unique healthcare services to the refugees to earn their trust. If the healthcare services provided to the refugees earlier are of top quality, then it is also useful; in earning the trust of them. "Strength-based approach" also strongly suggests that patients are given unique healthcare services (Au et al., 2019). Therefore, the refugees can understand that the nurses are willing to offer them the best healthcare possible. On the other hand, it also creates a good relationship between the nurses and the refugees of Australia. Thus, this approach is highly recommended if the nurses want to form proper partnership with refugees eventually.

Conclusion
In the above study, it was highlighted that refugees are basically outcasts of their own society who migrate to other places in order to search for peace and quality of life. Australia is home to many refugees. However, as many refugees have come from extreme societies, it is often seen that the refugees are often sceptical about the healthcare services provided by the Australian government. One of the issues that can be observed within the community is the hesitancy to take vaccines. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the nurses to help them overcome the fear of vaccination. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination has become one of the major equipment against such diseases. To conclude this nursing assignment it can be reported that with the help of “strength-based approach", the nurses can help the refugees overcome their fear and be more welcoming to the vaccines provided by the Australian government.

References
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