Wealth Health Conflict

We live in a country where all children go to school to gain an education and 25% of them will go onto receive some type of college degree. Compare this to low-income countries, in which children are 16 times as likely to die prior to their fifth birthday (Nickitas, Middaugh & Aries, 2016). Beyond the lens of our smartphones, Facebook friends and Nike sneakers is a world full of desperate people wishing to have enough food to eat for today. Many parts of the world lack sanitation, safe housing, sparse medical care and no medication. The global health issue are everyone’s problems not only for the sake of altruism but, with the increase in global travel for routine business and pleasure, dangerous pathogen are no longer confine by boarders. The Ebola outbreak four years ago, proved the necessity of a global solution to global health issues. The collaborative practice of several world health agencies and economically developed countries along with the use of volunteers, statistical updates, the latest literature and practices kept this outbreak mostly contained to its region of origin and the death toll to approximately 11,000 people (mainly in West Africa) (WHO,

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian organization helping people in countries of the greatest need. Usually focusing on assisting underdeveloped countries, they deliver emergency medical aid to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or suffer exclusion from health care. This goal is astonishing, since numerous countries are dealing with devastation due to war or overall lack of resources. Nevertheless, with the history and background of this organization, they are doing a phenomenal job at accomplishing it. Operating mostly on donations, the organization tries to garner attention by informing the public of what they do and why it is important in making their mission possible.

If a health clinic providing basic services to the world’s most vulnerable people is withheld the large amount of foreign assistance that currently comes from the United States government, all diseases will flourish, including epidemics such as Zika and Ebola (Barry-Jester, 2016). We contribute to more unstable political environments (Crimm, 2007, p.615) and more refugees that we increasingly refuse to help when we take away aid that would countries meet the needs of their citizens.

The third episode of the video series “Rx for Survival,” focused on the hindrances in conveying the 21st century’s global health tools worldwide and was titled “Delivering the Goods.” The episode expressed the difficulty in delivering public health interventions to many of the world’s people; as a large challenge, and declared the fact that 10 million children die yearly from preventable causes “a great paradox of public health” (Rx for Survival, 2005). The video relayed some of the larger obstacles to providing care for the needy as being: geographical, information delivery, and political (Rx for Survival, 2005).

My nursing practice has been affected by the medical mission trips that I have taken to Haiti. This course has further expanded my knowledge of global nursing and helped me to understand and envision new ways to improve health outcomes. I have been face to face with impoverished people who lacked access to clean drinking water, proper sanitation, nourishment and healthcare services. The life expectancy at birth in Haiti for women is 64 and in men is 61 (WHO, 2015). Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and is still recovering from the catastrophic earth quake that occurred in 2010. As result of the earth quake, 220,000 were killed, more than 300,000 were injured and 1.5 million people lost their homes (Breakey, Corless, Meedzan, & Nicholas, 2015). The country experienced a large cholera outbreak following the earth quake because of their poor sanitation practices. The country continues to face many health challenges, so organizations from around the world are poised to help address the health disparities experienced by the Haitian people and others in developing nations around the world. Nurses are an important member of this team as lobby for change, provide much needed financial resources, give of their time and work toward making this world a better place for everyone to live.

As I was reading about the village and the people in the village in Madagascar, I really admired Janice Harper the medical anthropologist. The living conditions and the health of the people really made me think about how fortunate we are in the United States to have health care. The mortality rate was disturbing with 100 deaths per 1000 people compared to that of the US being 8 deaths per 1000 population (Singer & Baer, 2012, p.45). It would be wonderful to be able to go to different countries to help people improve their health care and provide proper medical care, but not sure how one deals with the conditions of the different countries. It definitely takes a special person to be able to deal with the situations Harper encountered. But, Harper found that even though the children where sick with bloated bellies, ear infections, scabies and boils, they were still active and happily playing (Singer & Baer, 2012, p.45). This was the children’s way of life and how they

According to Article 15, “Health and Wealth,” poor people tend to have shorter lives and more health problems. What are some of the reasons that this is the case? What can be done about the situation?

I was born in Monrovia, Liberia. Liberia is a country on the west coast of Africa that had endured a civil war from 1989 -2005. Liberia infrastructures are in ruins because of the civil war. Mostly, Importantly the Liberian medical infrastructure is non-existent. Liberia has only one medical school, and there are only 173 doctors in Liberia, a country with about 2.8 million citizens. Liberia medical infrastructure put to the test during the Ebola outbreak of 2014. The world watched as the Liberian medical apparatus collapse under its own weight. For example, there weren't enough medical facilities to facilitate Ebola patients. The Liberian government shut down schools, so they could be just as makeshift clinics. An estimated 5000 Liberians

The main reason to send health care professionals is to help heal those who are suffering from these diseases. As of recently, the Ebola Epidemic has spread across the world, mainly

The early 1970s were watershed years for public health in emergencies. The Biafran War (in Nigeria), the 1970 cyclone in Bangladesh, and the sweeping famines in Africa deeply engaged the public health community in trying to meet the need for impartial and effective medical aid. The use of epidemiologic methods to reduce civilian morbidity and mortality in mass emergencies began in earnest at this time.4,5 This period also saw the engagement of health care practitioners in the elaboration of international norms on ethics, human rights, and humanitarian law in emergency settings.6-8

The French aid organization, Doctors Without Borders, has done a lot in countries like Afghanistan to help as much as they can. Doctors Without Borders is an organization that tries to fill the gaps in Afghanistan’s health care. Although these organizations have done a lot to help countries including Afghanistan, there is still a lot more work that needs to be done. As people have more and more needs, it is becoming harder for the organization to help everyone they want to help (Cassandra Vinograd). In addition, Doctors Without Borders left Kunduz in northern Afghanistan after a very large and dangerous airstrike. During the airstrike, 22 people were killed including 12 Doctors Without Borders staff members. As organizations like Doctors Without

In many places around the world today, people are existing in carnage, as seen in the films “Living in Emergency” and “5 Broken Cameras”. Within all of these films, there are various instances where people are simply normalized with the war and violence happening around them. Looking at the film “Living in Emergency”, one can learn a lot about the normalization of war to people, as the documentary follows the plights of medical professionals within the organization “Doctors Without Borders”. Set in Congo and Liberia, both which are dealing with conflict and who have little access to proper medical facilities, the film bounces between the stories of four doctors as they struggle to provide proper emergency care to a large number of helpless people. The doctors highlight that they are often “psychologically tired” during their missions, and one veteran doctor who wants out of the mission tells that he often is most content when he diagnoses a patient and knows that there is nothing that he can do to help them, as this takes the pressure off of him and makes his work easier to handle (0:10). Many doctors highlight that death becomes part of the work they are in, as they try their best in all situations, but with limited medical supplies and severe cases of disease and injuries that have gone without treatment for years, death is common (0:20). The film flips between scenes of post-war Liberia and the warzone that is Congo, as 4 million have been killed in the DCR since the start of this war (0:18). The work is becoming more and more dangerous for the doctors placed in Congo, as they no longer can go out at night as 5 doctors were almost killed by muggings and the general endangerment of a warzone (0:20). In Liberia, the casualties are so severe that a veteran doctor says that he no longer has the “stomach for this work”, and this shows that even after multiple placements, this doctor is still not desensitized to the ugliness that he sees (0:35). In this film, we really see the impact of poverty on all aspect of these civilian’s lives, and such shows the normality of horrific conditions, which once again leads to the question of should the United States be in charge of fixing these issues?

Such a scenario allowed us as health care professionals to critically think what would be in the best interest for a large population in a crisis and how we can bring relief to them. One thing that surprised me was how it was a bit difficult to critically think what we would actually do through type of a crisis. Through my nursing perspective, I was unsure how I would manage the care of patients during a crisis outside of the hospital setting. It was interesting how each one of us had different dilemmas of how we would deal with this situation. One thing that I will take away from this, is that it’s important to maintain ethical care for those who are being cared during a disaster even when privacy and confidentiality may lack in such a situation. The second thing that I’ll take away is how to collaborate with team members and how to put our ideas together to manage to support the health and well-being of our patients. Lastly, I will take away how during a disaster/pandemic can affect our roles as health care professionals. The role of a pharmacist, nurse, or doctor can interchange through a crisis when the needs of for a population increases; where we need to take different roles the benefit the interest of the population. My attitude towards a pandemic situation has changed as now I’m aware of the importance of critical thinking and collaborating with others to better

Although volunteers for Medecins Sans Frontiers are commonly stationed in various countries with a dire healthcare worker shortage, regions with refugee camps and internally displaced persons are also a focus for this organization. Refugees and internally displaced persons often come from war torn regions and live in close confines with poor sanitation and limited resources. These living situations become a breeding ground for diseases and other health issues like malnutrition, yet the individuals lack access to any sort of healthcare. The organization also responds quickly when regions suddenly experience an increased need for healthcare, for example in times of an epidemic or a natural disaster. Medecins Sans Frontiers’ involvement across its varying regions and their attempt to address a broad spectrum of healthcare truly show how altruistic the organization is to individuals regardless of race, gender, or religion.

This review revealed an outbreak of Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in which targeted areas at an increasing rate in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) affected by humanitarian crises. This crisis placed major challenges on humanitarian agencies and governments officials in proposing an effective tactic to tackle such crisis. The aim of this paper is to discuss the analyzed key element, the reliability and the potential impact on clinical practice or standard of care of this systematic study.