Week 4: Primary Health Care

Introduction

Primary health care adds to primary care principle beyond medical care such as social and political principles (Stange et al., 2014). This essay is a reflection on the activities of week 4 that aid me develop a deeper understanding of Primary Heath Care (PHC).

Body

The main goal of PHC is to provide better healthcare for everyone (Stange et al., 2014). Previously, I was unaware that PHC was a term that holds a great importance in health. However, the activities of week 4 helped me understand that PHC is a group of elements that serve the main goal of delivering health to everyone. First, PHC aims to minimise exclusion and social disparities in health which shows the link between PHC and social determinants of health (Stange et al., 2014). In addition, PHC aims to organise health services so it responds to people need and expectations and levelling for establishing health equity (Stange et al., 2014). In week 3, we learned about how social determinants have a significant impact on health, thus health inequity, targeted by PHC, would severely affect population health (Scott et al., 2015). For example, early life is one of the social determinants that can affect health. Thus, if PHC did not target prenatal and postnatal follow-ups, population health will be compromised. Moreover, in my opinion the most two significant skills a nurse should have in PHC are communication and cultural competency. Communication and cultural competency are two skills that will allow the heath professional to connect with all patients in the community. Merlin Mathew and Ramsha Fatima Memon share my opinion about the importance of understanding patients in PHC. 

Conclusion

Primary healthcare is necessary in order to maintain health equity and provide better healthcare and meet the health need of everyone in the population.

References

SCOTT, E. D., GIL, K., KING, B. C. & PIATT, E. 2015. Clinical Outcomes in a Primary Care Practice Within a Center for Health Equity. Journal of primary care & community health, 6, 239-242.

STANGE, K. C., ETZ, R. S., GULLETT, H., SWEENEY, S. A., MILLER, W. L., JAÉN, C. R., CRABTREE, B. F., NUTTING, P. A. & GLASGOW, R. E. 2014. Metrics for assessing improvements in primary health care. Annual review of public health, 35, 423-442.

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