Environmental Factors In Haiti Impact On Global Nursing

The country I have choose to utilize in the global case study is Haiti. The crisis is hurricane Matthew. As the lead nurse in a shelter working in this country and people are pouring into the shelter it is crucial to provide effective care and achieve desired patient outcomes. It is important to assess and triage the population properly, manage and prevent the spread of infection, and delegate tasks accordingly.

There were many factors that contributed to Haiti becoming one of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere. Agriculture, corruption, and inequality were the main reasons for the downfall of Haiti’s economy. Another major attribute would be Papa Doc and Baby Doc’s involvement in Haiti. There was a lot of corruption that happened during this til and the Haitian people took all of the fall, devastated by the consequences that followed Baby Doc as he and his wife fled. The people had to rebuild themselves from nothing and they still have not recovered from this.

According to the Health Development Index, Haiti has the “poorest standards of living” (“Haiti”). Most live in huts and shelters. Many build on trash heaps, and their living environments are often highly unsanitary. Many family members live under the same roof in cramped quarters. They have “the worst health statistics in the

Compounding this lack of care, Haitians also lack clean drinking water and proper sanitation systems. Less than half the population has access to clean drinking water, a rate that is only surpassed by civil war-torn African nations. Even worse, half the population of Haiti can be categorized as “food insecure,” and this malnutrition has created a generation where half of all Haitian children are undersized (IFRC, 2010). In addition, this poor sanitation and hygiene, coupled with inadequate nutrition, have contributed to exceptionally high levels of individuals with chronic, yet often at best ill-treated, conditions.

     The Republic of Haiti is in the western part of the island of Hispaniola in the West Indies. It is densely populated and has the lowest per capita income in the western hemisphere (Kemp, 2001). The population of more than seven million is made up of mostly descendents of African slaves brought to the West Indies by French colonists. The horrible conditions in Haiti, such as crushing poverty, unemployment and illiteracy, and high rates of acute and chronic illnesses and child and infant mortality, result in the illegal immigration of many Haitians to the United States, France, and other countries in Western Europe. Most immigrants are adults and teens who leave Haiti

Wide reaching, nurses significantly outnumbered physicians as providers of health care often having utmost vast reach remoteness to underserved communities. Having personally lived in one of the underserved communities in my hometown Western Africa before moving to the United States of America and my life calling to be a nurse from a young age with the deep desire to make a difference. I plan to contribute and continue to contribute immensely to the underserved communities by delivering quality health care to remote regions around the world. I do volunteer service at several clinics in the Atlanta area with many well-known Emory physicians that care for homeless and underserved populations, these volunteer experiences provide me with opportunities and fulfillment to develop added headship skill and experience to meet my daily patients, needs.

In a blog post written by Sokari Ekine, the Nigerian social justice activist explains that cholera is an illness “exacerbated by heavy rains; poor sanitation; and limited clean water and associated poor hygiene” (Ekine, 2013). These components factor largely into the chosen intervention activities. Haiti is an island that experiences significant flooding due to its location in the hurricane belt; this flooding makes access to safe water a major issue in a nation with flimsy infrastructure (World Health Organization, 2011). This program plans to restore and improve water and sanitation facilities for they are the main mode of transmission for the cholera bacterium. The corresponding poor hygiene that stems from lack of safe water and sanitation will be addressed in the health education provided for community members.

Haiti needed help since the cholera disease was new to the population. Nevertheless, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was informed of two United States HCW who became ill with cholera after providing medical services in Haiti (Schilling et al.,

Shortly before my recent mission trip to Haiti, I decided to take the chance and sign up for a mission trip for Ecuador in June 2016. As I was trying to convince my parents to sign off on the trip, their one concern was the funds that I would need. I continuously told them that if it is God's will, He will provide. Now, a short three months after they agreed to let me go, I am happy to say that I have more than half of the funds needed to go. With that being said, I am still short on money for the actual trip which includes a place to stay, my plane ticket, meals, some construction tools and other expenses while on the trip. Although this stuff is mostly paid for at this point, their are other expenses that I need covered. With this being said,

In the summer of 2014, as a part of the Global Medical Brigades, I visited and stayed at a small village in Nicaragua for 11 days. While visiting Nicaragua, I was really astonished by the lack of health care as well as, the lack of any health system in particular. Families did not have access to any type of medicine, unless they lived in the village and had money to spend. However, this was not the case for many of the families in the village so several of them suffered and fell ill to diseases and infections. Also, the water was not very clean and access to clean water, once again, could only be found in cities. About 50% of the population lives in poverty in which 85% of this population struggle to live on more than one-dollar daily (Balint 1999). Several communities are limited in their access to basic health services because of poor road infrastructure, which makes transportation and trade tremendously difficult. Historically, each step forward that Nicaragua has taken in the realm of development has been counteracted with a step back in the form of a revolution, natural disasters, repealing of funding for governmental projects or foreign aid. The focus of my research is observing and recording the factors that contribute to the high mortality rate of the Nicaragua populations and how these challenges can be combatted and resolved. My paper will discuss the inaccessibility of health care and why it is difficult to reach among populations that live in poverty and rural

With anything that a nurse does in practice it is crucial for the nurse to educate the patient. Education about women’s health in Haiti as well as the nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene will help to improve all of these areas that are a major health concern in Haiti. There are currently programs in place in Haiti to improve these health concerns, however, with education and nursing interventions it will help to decrease the number of cases. For women’s health it is vital that the nurse educate about the importance of the women’s reproductive health and the importance of prenatal and antenatal care. With educating about the importance of women’s health it is also vital that the nurse educate about the importance of proper nutrition for

Time has already passed and hungry children are walking the streets of the city alone waiting for someone to give them help. They are waiting for the Americans to bring aid to their country (In Haiti, children are the most vulnerable). In addition, international aid has contributed to assist people with mental and psychological problems caused by the earthquake. Partners in Health contribute in the construction of public teaching hospital in March 2013. The hospital is offering health care services to the poor people of Haiti. The PIH assists people who suffer from depression and stress. The PIH train “community health workers” that would be able to recognize the mental or physiological of the patient (Haiti, Three Years after the Earthquake). Moreover, other organizations are working for the safety and welfare of many homeless children. The UNICEF is working to bring education, safety, and counseling to homeless children (2010 Earthquake in Haiti). The fate of many children in Haiti is uncertain. The hope of the children and other survivors is to be able able to overcome the psychological trauma caused by losing their parents, home etc. by the earthquake. In short, the physiological problems caused the earthquake leave wounds in the souls of many Haitians, but tragically,

Over this past summer, I went on a mission trip to Haiti that affected me more than I ever could have thought. Yes it was filled with a lot of hard work, but I would rather go back than relive any of my past vacations. My team and I had to pour concrete and tile two complete rooms as well as carry over eight hundred concrete blocks upstairs and onto the roof. All of this work was spread out over the course of four days; it wasn’t bad at all. The majority of the work that was being done wasn’t physical labor, but mental instead.

Haiti has made the news multiple times, especially for the earthquake and the devastation afterward. I chose to look at the different health burdens in Haiti to see what the health is like now after some time since the earthquake. The health burden that I chose to look into further is malaria. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 17,662 cases of malaria in 2014, which is a decrease (World Health Organization, 2016). Haiti has an initiative to eliminate malaria by 2020, however at this time Haiti is “experience a greater burden of both transmission and disease” (Frederick et al., 2016, p. 1).

This approach allows the researcher to carry out the research for both practical and theoretical reasons (Maylor and Blackmon, 2005). The main focus on these case studies will be investigating how Maldives, Taiwan and Phuket rebuilt their tourism sector by using destination branding concepts and trying to generalize if the same concepts could be recommended for Haiti. “This approach will allow the researcher to eliminate external sources of variation and look systematically for patterns of action” (ibid: 246). According to Blaikie (2000), this approach is also the most suitable due to the short time and limited budget of the researcher (cited in, ibid 243).