From a health promotion perspective, discuss and describe the role of the nurse in meeting
the current and future needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
The Role of the Nurse from a Health Promotion Perspective in Meeting the Needs of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Population
The role of nurses is diverse and includes a wide range of nursing activities both
preventative and curative, which particularly include consultation, patient health education,
treatment follow-up as well as illness prevention. This has played a significant role in improving
healthcare services’ availability, increased cost-effectiveness, reduced symptoms of diseases that
are chronic as well as enhanced healthcare services’ experiences among patients (Whitehead,
2011). In addition, nurses have been playing an imperative role towards health promotion, which
has contributed to significant positive health outcomes such as quality of life, adherence, and
knowledge of patients concerning their illnesses as well as improved self-management (Tones &
Tilford, 2011; Wise, 2012). In this paper, the focus will be on the role of the nurse from the
perspective of health promotion in meeting current as well as future needs of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander population in Australia. According to Angus (2013), the concept of health
promotion from the perspective of nursing care emphasizes on health promotion practise that is
community-based, and which encourages community participation on basis of health and social
policies. This approach is very vital because it ensures that the current and future health needs of
a community or a population of people are satisfactorily met (Marshall, 2012).
The current and future health needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population,
who are the indigenous people in the country from a health promotion perspective, are an
NURSE’S ROLE IN HEALTH PROMOTION 2
important health priority considering that this population has been highly disadvantaged in
comparison to non-indigenous Australians in terms of healthcare services’ access. As a result, a
nurse would play an essential role in meeting current and future healthcare needs of this
population, especially from the perspective of health promotion. Gee et al. (2014) reiterate that
the people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population have continued to suffer the
greatest burden of illness compared to the rest of the population due to lower levels of healthcare
services’ access. This means that a nurse would have to play a crucial role in order to
satisfactorily meet the needs of this population.
Considering that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population has been
marginalised over the last few centuries, a nurse would play a significant role in improving poor
health by meeting the current and future healthcare needs. For instance, a nurse would help in
community support, which would be essential in promoting advancement in improvement of
health through cooperation with the community (Marshall, 2012). This means that, since there
are several social determinants of health among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens
such as money, peaceful coexistence in the community, education level, working as well as
connectedness to family and friends, the nurse will need to provide community support with
regards to empowerment and partnerships. In particular, the empowerment of the population
through community support will require the nurse to provide necessary information to
individuals and groups concerning various diseases and health conditions so that they able to
make informed healthcare choices. This would in turn determine their destiny through
acquisition of appropriate resources for supporting their decisions. In addition, the nurse could
also enable community support by promoting partnerships with other healthcare providers as
well as community and social workers (Whitehead, 2011). Consequently, the groups under
NURSE’S ROLE IN HEALTH PROMOTION 3
supervision of the nurse should work synergistically to ensure that healthcare equity is achieved
among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population and appropriate healthcare outcomes
with regards to policy, ethical and legal considerations are attained. Community support through
the nurse can also be promoted by designing programs directed at health promotion as well as
advocacy for the availability of important health services in remote and rural areas where
majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are located (Tones & Tilford, 2011; Wise,
2012).
Furthermore, health education is another vital role that a nurse can play from the
perspective of health promotion in order to meet current and future needs of the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander population. This mainly concerns promoting awareness and accessibility of
health services aimed at prevention illnesses and health promotion. Australian Institute of Health
and Welfare (2013) definition of health promotion is that, it is considered as a process through
which people are enabled to increase their control over as well as improvement of their health.
The nurse can facilitate this process through provision of appropriate information to the people
inform of health education. Nurses are better placed to provide health education because of their
education and experience in healthcare and nursing practise, which make them a harbour of
healthcare information. As a result, the nurse can disseminate this information particularly that
concerning preventive and management measures that can be fundamental in meeting the current
and future needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population (Gee et al., 2014).
Additionally, since a considerable number of respiratory diseases are attributed to
tobacco smoking, the nurse can play an important role in promoting smoking cessation in order
to abate this trend. Considering that, a considerable population of the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islanders smoke it would be necessary for the nurse to devise programs that promote
NURSE’S ROLE IN HEALTH PROMOTION 4
smoking cessation. It is also imperative to note that it is not likely for this indigenous population
to take alcohol compared to the non-indigenous. However, this requires the nurse to encourage
those who take alcohol to either stop or refrain from taking it in harmful levels (Angus, 2013).
Furthermore, Health Department of Australian Government (2013) reported that kidney
disease among this population is a serious health problem. As a result, the nurse would organise
for dialysis bus for the people requiring dialysis at home considering that the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander population has the highest prevalence of kidney disease compared to any
other population in Australia. Moreover, the nurse will also play an important role in meeting the
needs of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population from the perspective of health
promotion by promoting treatment and management of chronic diseases such as diabetes,
cancers, and heart diseases. Alternatively, the nurse should also champion for health promotion
through treatment of communicable diseases (Whitehead, 2011).
In conclusion, it is evident that the role of a nurse is inevitable in meeting the needs of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from health promotion perspective. This is achievable
through more programs that promote health advancement, better health conditions’ identification
prior they become serious, more accessibility of primary healthcare services as well as enhancing
greater cultural competence.
NURSE’S ROLE IN HEALTH PROMOTION 5
References
Angus, S. (2013). Global Health Promotion. Promoting the Health of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Island People: Issues for the Future, 4(2),
22–24.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2013). Indigenous statistics: quality and availability.
Gee, G., Dudgeon, P., Schultz, C., Hart, A., & Kelly, K. (2014). Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander social and emotional wellbeing. In: Dudgeon P, Milroy H, Walker R,
eds. working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing
principles and practice, (2 nd ed.). Canberra: Department of the Prime Minister and
Cabinet, pp. 55-68
Health Department of Australian Government. (2013). Healthy Active. Healthy Spaces and
Places. Retrieved on 5 September 2016
Marshall, B.J. (2012). School based health promotion across Australia. Journal of School Health,
70(3), 251–252.
Tones, K. & Tilford, S. (2011). Health promotion: effectiveness, efficiency and equity, (3rd ed.).
Cheltenham, UK: Nelson Thornes. ISBN 0-7487-4527-0.
Whitehead, D. (2011). Health promotion in nursing: A Derridean discourse analysis. Health
Promotion International, 26(3), 17-127.
Wise, M. (2012). Health Promotion in Australia. Reviewing the past and looking to the future,
18, 497–508.