1) Challenges To The Health Care System P.30-31 Flashcards
Is Canada’s healthcare system without challenges despite being heralded as a prime example of universal health coverage?
- No, it is not without challenges
- Universal health coverage is an aspiration requiring continuous commitment
- Adequate depth and scope of coverage must be politically achievable and fiscally feasible
What must a successful healthcare system do to address challenges?
- Continue to evolve and realign resources
- Meet changing population needs
- Foster evidence-informed care
- Ensure equitable access to care
- Contain costs
Why is health system reform and nursing engagement necessary?
- To address the major challenges facing the healthcare system
- Challenges necessitate reform to the system
- Nursing engagement is needed to advocate for and implement reforms
What has fueled the ideological debate about how the Canadian healthcare system should be funded and delivered?
- Rising healthcare costs
- Increasing wait times
What is the position of right-wing political groups on healthcare funding?
- Assert that healthcare costs are rising at unsustainable rates
- Call for privatization of the healthcare system
What is the position of left-wing political groups on healthcare?
- Argue for restructuring of the healthcare system
- Increased breadth of healthcare coverage
What has been the impact of the rise of neo-liberalism in the 1990s?
- Increased health inequalities
- Weakened social provisions
How do the ideological premises of the political party in power influence healthcare?
- Dramatically influence health and public policy
- The future of the healthcare system is subject to their views and priorities
What is the professional obligation of nurses regarding the healthcare system?
- Be civically engaged
- Advocate for equitable and accessible healthcare services meeting Canadians’ needs
What will pose the biggest threat to human health and well-being worldwide over the coming decades?
- Climate change
What climate change impacts will Canadians face?
- Increasing extreme cold and heat events
- Weather-related natural disasters
- Poor air quality
- Waterborne and foodborne contamination
- Exposure to ultraviolet light
- Changing patterns of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases
What will determine the extent of climate change impacts on human health?
- How fast the climate changes
- How well the healthcare system adapts to associated challenges and risks
What is urgently needed to mitigate the health effects of climate change?
- Nursing engagement, advocacy, and leadership
- Addressing vulnerabilities of the healthcare system
- Fostering resiliency in the healthcare system
What were the major health care needs of Canadians in the 1960s?
- Treatment of acute injuries and diseases
- Care was primarily delivered in hospitals
How did Canada’s health care system meet the needs in the 1960s?
- Built a reactive, hospital-doctor focused system
- Treatment services dominated
How have Canadians’ health care needs changed since the 1960s?
- Needs are primarily centered on chronic disease management and care
- An increasing number of Canadians are living with chronic diseases
What portion of health care costs do hospital services represent?
- 26.4% of total health expenditures in 2019
- Hospital spending accounts for the largest portion
What is the issue with the focus on acute care settings?
- Bulk of spending is on acute care rather than primary health care (PHC)
- Lack of community supports for chronic disease management
What is the consequence of lack of community supports?
- Many Canadians with chronic conditions require costly hospitalizations
- Strains the health care system further
What should nurses advocate for?
- Establishment of a strong PHC-focused health care system
- Upstream approaches to health care
How many people worked in health-related occupations in Canada in 2019 compared to 2012?
- In 2019, over 1.4 million people worked in health-related occupations
- In 2012, 1.7 million people worked in health-related occupations
- The number of people employed in the healthcare sector has decreased despite population growth
What has the decrease in healthcare workers led to?
- Many job vacancies, particularly in rural/remote areas and specialty areas
- Compromised accessibility to healthcare services for many Canadians
What percentage of vacant positions in 2019 were nursing positions?
- 30% of vacant positions in 2019 were nursing positions
What has made the shortage of healthcare professionals more evident?
- The COVID-19 pandemic
What is a critical component of a successful healthcare system?
- Health human resource planning
What factors must be considered for effective health human resource planning?
- Broader healthcare system challenges (wait times, patient safety, bed closures)
- Population demographics and trends (aging population, urbanization)
How much is Canada’s population of older persons expected to grow over the next 20 years?
- Expected to grow by 68%
- As the baby-boom generation enters senior years
What characterizes the aging process for many older Canadians?
- Chronic diseases and conditions
- Prompting need to access more healthcare services
To support aging in place, what services need to be available and accessible?
- Appropriate home-based services (e.g. home care)
- Appropriate community-based services (e.g. independent living support)
What is the current healthcare system primarily designed for?
- To deliver acute and emergent services
- With limited long-term care facilities
What is the risk to healthcare facilities without appropriate home/community care?
- Facilities will be overwhelmed by growing older population
- Unable to meet their needs
What do nurses need to do to meet the needs of the aging population?
- Advocate for more services meeting older persons’ needs
- Fulfill and develop these services wherever they live
- Collaborate with other healthcare professionals
What are the benefits of providing appropriate services for aging in place?
- Prevents unnecessary and costly hospital admissions
- Empowers older persons to optimize quality of life at home
What did the Truth and Reconciliation Commission compel Canadians to confront?
- Our dark history of violence toward Indigenous peoples
- The legacy of colonization
How do Indigenous peoples in Canada experience healthcare compared to non-Indigenous counterparts?
- Worse access to care
- Poorer health outcomes
- Higher burden of disease and disparities
What is required to engage in reconciliation and address Indigenous health inequities based on the TRC Calls to Action?
- Promote policy and system changes
- Engage Indigenous communities
- Recruit and retain Indigenous healthcare professionals
- Engage in cultural safety training and anti-racism efforts
- Improve Indigenous patient care, access, and outcomes
What is an ongoing challenge that nurses must commit to addressing?
- Promoting reconciliation within the healthcare system
- Addressing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action
What percentage of Canadians live in rural or remote communities?
- 18% of Canadians
What percentage of regulated nurses serve the rural/remote population?
- 11.8% of regulated nurses
What percentage of physicians serve the rural/remote population?
- 8% of physicians
How does the distribution of healthcare providers and services compare to the need in rural/remote areas?
- Does not mirror the need
What challenges do rural/remote Canadians face regarding healthcare access?
- Greater challenge accessing healthcare
- Experience poorer health outcomes
What do rural/remote Canadians have to do to access services beyond basic healthcare?
- Travel long distances
In rural/remote areas with healthcare services, who provides the bulk of care?
- Nurses provide the bulk of care
- Nurses maintain continuity of services
What should nurses do to ensure equitable access to care for rural/remote Canadians?
- Leverage technology
- Establish mobile clinics
How must nursing roles evolve as the Canadian healthcare system changes?
- Nursing roles must continue to evolve and diversify
- Nurses have a unique understanding of current and future healthcare needs
What has nursing practice primarily involved to date?
- Direct patient care
- Conspicuous absence at executive and decision-making levels
What is needed from nurses now more than ever?
- Nurses are needed in leadership positions
- To catalyze healthcare system change using their understanding
What role will nurses play in addressing healthcare challenges?
- Key in developing innovative solutions
- Professional responsibility to expand and forge new nursing roles
How do health policies affect the healthcare system?
- Directly affect delivery, availability, outcomes, disparities
- Affect working conditions and nursing practice
What is often the case with nurses and health policies?
- Nurses are more often recipients and implementers, not developers
- Nursing voice has minimal policy impact
What potential do nurses hold by engaging in policy work?
- Considerable potential to address pressing health challenges
- Nursing voices needed at all levels of the healthcare system
What is nursing’s professional obligation?
- Contribute to healthcare policy development
- Lead and catalyze system changes for a better future
What is the Nursing Now campaign?
- A global campaign established in 2018
- Aims to improve health by raising the status and profile of nursing
What is the first step for nurses to advocate for policy change?
- Define the problem and build the case for change
- Identify the challenge/issue and what needs to change
What is the second step?
- Choose the target
- Identify individuals, structures, or organizations controlling the problem area
What is the third step?
- Find allies
- Consider other stakeholders who can influence the target decision maker
What actions are involved in the fourth step “Call for change”?
- Request meetings
- Send emails and letters
- Develop a media campaign
- Engage champions
- Propose policy changes
What will the Canadian healthcare system require?
- Significant restructuring
- To meet complex needs of diverse population
- In response to local and global challenges
What range from nursing’s contributions in Canada?
- Providing direct care
- Actively participating in reformation processes
- Maintaining pursuit of equitable access for all
What has nursing been instrumental in advancing?
- Nursing practice
- Interdisciplinary practices
- Collaborative efforts for societal betterment
What roles must nursing assert in the future?
- Critical stakeholders
- Partners
- Providers within emerging healthcare system
What is Medicare?
- A key component of Canada’s social safety net
What role do all levels of government play in healthcare?
- Co-funding national health insurance
- Setting healthcare policy per Canada Health Act
What are the five principles of Canada’s national health insurance system articulated in the Canada Health Act?
- Public administration
- Comprehensiveness
- Universality
- Portability
- Accessibility
What does the Canada Health Act forbid?
- Extra billing
- User fees
Where are healthcare services provided?
- Institutional settings
- Community settings
- Home settings
What are the five levels of healthcare?
- Promotive
- Preventive
- Curative
- Rehabilitative
- Supportive
What challenges the healthcare system in delivering innovative, efficient, quality care?
- Escalating costs
- Technological innovations
- Consumer expectations
What challenges does the healthcare system face?
- Equality
- Equity
- Access
- Interdisciplinary approaches
- Communication
- Continuity of care
What aligns with healthcare reform and cost-effectiveness?
- Primacy of primary healthcare
- Home care
What do successful health promotion and disease prevention programs help patients achieve?
- Healthier lifestyles
- Optimal quality of life
What is essential for a culturally competent and safe Canadian healthcare system?
- Sufficient, diverse, qualified human health resources
What is a significant challenge to Canadian society and healthcare?
- Enhancing the health of the Indigenous population
What must nurses continually do?
- Seek information and evidence
- Remain responsive to quality, culturally competent, safe care
