A Public Health Nutritionist Dietician

A major challenge in Australia is the recruitment and retention of health care workers and remote areas as majorities of health care professionals live and work in the metropolitan areas. In spite of attempts to recruit more health workers, the availability of health care is still insufficient. In correlation to the decreased number of health care workers, there has been an increase in the amount of people who have chronic diseases such as strokes and heart attacks.

In general, for my long-term goal is to help people and make them aware of how much nutrition and physical activity can make a big change in their life. My first goal is applying for the Internship within 2 years of graduating. After I complete my internship I will prepare for the exam by studying all my nutrition notes and books from school as well as all material from my internship. I will apply and take the national registered dietitian exam in order to be a practicing Registered Dietitian.

I believe it’s important to recognise these barriers that prevent indigenous Australians from reaching the same standard of living as the rest of the Australian population. Cultural safety is an important aspect that can help alleviate fears, hostility and mistrust amongst indigenous Australians and health professionals. All these aspect are intricately linked, therefore, it’s crucial to take into consideration the different factors that plays a major role in indigenous health and wellbeing. Personally, I would feel much safer if a health institution has cultural knowledge and acknowledgement of my culture. An environment like that will be conducive to communication and the fostering of strong relationships and trust. Indigenous Australians must be made to feel safe in health care environments in terms of their wellbeing and their

As a child, I dreamt of having a career in a medical field. Throughout my late elementary and middle school years, I wanted to become a Pediatrician. I remember this one memory from when I was younger. I was at a local Pediatric office getting my yearly checkup done and thought about how I wanted to be like Dr. Hletko (my family’s Pediatric Doctor). He has been my doctor since I was born. Anytime I was sick, he would be there to diagnose the problems and prescribed me my antibiotics to get better. Not only did he help me get better, but he also helped so many sick kids get healthy and I aspired to be like him one day. As I got older and started high school, I changed my career choice and wanted to become a Nurse Practitioner (APRN). APRN’s

In 1893 a graduate nurse, Lillian Wald, founded the Henry Street Settlement (HSS). The purpose of HSS was to assess the needs of the poor population that lived in the overcrowded, and rat infested tenements. The HSS visiting nurse program visited thousands of patients and obtained standing orders for emergency medications, and treatments. In the 1930s developed the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) which was considered to be the first primary Nurse Practitioner (NP) role. The FNS nurses made diagnoses, and treated patients, while dispensing herbs, medicines with the acceptance of the medical advisory committee. In 1931 American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) was founded. In 1965 Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) certification

Interviewing Reyes, Teresita a Registered Nurse, I learned how the decision that she will made together with her team, can affect the lives of so many people, regular people just like you and I. having to take a decision of closing a public place where general public benefits from it, a hospital, is a huge responsibility. However, if Reyes and her team are not careful about their decision, the lives of so many people can be at risk. I’ve learned how a process called “Survey” is a multistep guide that Reyes and her team are used to it, doing this mostly 30 times a year, they have already remember every single step of it. On the other hand, Reyes and her team are the most feared and somehow hated in the medical setting, this is because they have to make sure everyone of them are following the rules and guidelines established by the federal government.

Most are born with an innate sense of direction they are born with an intangible predilection that guides them either left or right. At a young age I didn’t realize it, but fortunately for me that was not my case. I always felt displaced and felt as if I was lacking that A to Z map. So I tried it all and opened every door to find my niche, that missing direction I so longed for. Some doors I opened and merely peeked in, such as traveling the U.S. and Europe sleeping either in a small car or crashing on a friend’s sofa to see if that particular place suited me. Others I walked in head first such as the time my cousin convinced me I was superman

Prior to this assignment, I had very little insight to what gatekeeping, state certificate of need programs, and Medicare PPS meant and how they affected lowering health care costs and spending. Thank you for sharing your perceptions and opinions on the regulations that’s were established within each of these laws. As a nurse who worked in a hospital, I remember having monthly educational meetings regarding length of stay, reimbursement and health care costs and spending. At that time, I felt the information seemed tedious and irrelevant to my role as a registered nurse. As a future family nurse practitioner, I can now appreciate the information and education I have gained from both my profession the assignments within this course.

These are some nursing interventions that may be implemented to increase the overall health status of the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander population. Some include programs to allow them access to primary health care, building a repor to create a sense of trust, providing specific knowledge for Indigenous health and understanding their culture. The rural nurse generalist role requires advanced skills most new graduates do not possess. Rural nurses perform crisis assessment and management skills for populations across the lifespan and for all health conditions. A rural nurse may manage traumas, calm the mentally ill, stabilize the critically ill, deliver emergency births, care for children and comfort the dying within the same shift (Molinari, Monserud 2008). General nursing courses don’t prepare nurses for this amount of workload or intense situations. Lea et al (2008) study shows that introducing remote placements during nursing degrees can help prepare nurses for the full on experience of working in the outer region hospitals instead on the metropolitan’s areas. Also dealing with limited resources and equipment, ability to multitask and overcome the language barriers they might have to face, as majority of the remote population is indigenous

Have you ever been confused about what to eat for a health problem or to weight loss/gain? A Registered Dietitian is a person that can help their clients with that situation. Registered Dietitian(RD) is a complex career with numerous different possibilities in the ways to work in this career. In this career, college is needed and it is around 5 years to complete the degree. There is a multitude of duties included in being a dietitian.

Indigenous and Age related, Chronic and acute health issues within the rural communities are intensified, and as workforce demand is not supported adequately on remote placements, the training needed to support such placements, pinpoint that the personnel to population ratio is not sufficient. (Lin, 2009). Distances in the Australian health care system are vast and wide, usage of digital health (Australian Government Department of Health, 2016), has the ability to optimize health and technology with communities and individuals.

Many distinct groups of people make up the remote community of Australia. This includes farmers, miners, tourists, and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander communities (Humphreys & Wakerman, 2008) However, it is important to understand that these exclusive groups of people who choose to live away from the majority of urban society unfortunately, are especially vulnerable to various health risks to a greater degree whether be social, physical or mental. Among those affected, none are more susceptible to disease than the Indigenous and adult population in isolated areas (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2005) [AIHW].

The food we consume every day has a significant impact on our health. Changes in your diet can help prevent or control many health problems such as obesity, diabetes and certain risk factors for cancer and heart disease (Nutrition Dietetics 2016). It is crucial for a Nutritionist to understand the health concerns of their clients, as well as their possible food intolerances and even their diets based on religious practice. A Nutritionist should

Durey and Thompson (2012) explain that the act of balancing quality care and organisation efficiency means that minimal resources are allocated to providing and improving appropriate Indigenous health care. Unfortunately, this is a factor in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women avoiding culturally unsafe care and aggravates the vicious cycle that leads to poor maternal and perinatal outcomes (Kruske, Kildea & Barclay, 2006). One of the recommendations made by the ‘Close the Gap’ campaign involves increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care workers (Kelly et al., 2014). It is thought that doing this will encourage more Indigenous Australians to attend health care services and also promote cultural safety therefore improving health outcomes for the Indigenous population (Kelly et al., 2014; Kildea, Kruske, Barclay & Tracy, 2010). Increasing the number of trained Indigenous health care professionals will require the support of institutions such as universities, health services and organisations responsible for the distribution of scholarship funds (Kelly et al., 2014; Sherwood, 2013; Kildea, Kruske, Barclay & Tracy, 2010). Specifically, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women must be encouraged and supported by universities to gain midwifery degrees

With the remarkable improvement of people’s living standard, abundant nutritious food has caused non-communicable diseases become incredibly common nowadays, which globally causes 63% of death and it is going to continuously increase in the future. (citedO) It is necessary for people to start to attach great importance to eating habit in their daily lives. This report is about the role of public health dietitians including the organisations they work in, what they do, who they usually work with, what health problems they need to deal with, and more importantly, how do they contribute to the health system and how they will play a more important role in New Zealand’s health system in the future.