This assignment requires you to choose a group of people living in the community and explore how a health issue impacts on their health. You will also consider how this issue can be addressed within the Australian health care system and the implications for the role of the nurse.
This assignment requires you to choose one of the following as the topic for this assignment*:
- Overseas born people and mental health issues
- Overseas born people and diabetes
- Indigenous Australians and mental health issues
- Indigenous Australians and diabetes
This assessment will take the form of a report where you are asked to use headings. You could use the headings stated below or choose your own. Please refer to the sections below in regard to more information about writing this assignment.
- Introduction (100 words).State the population group and health issue you have chosen to explore. Provide an overview of the body of the assignment.
- Part A –Impact on the individual (300 words). Explain the impact of this issue on the health of the individual. (You will need to explore the psychological, social and cultural impact of the condition and support your discussion with quality references. You are NOT required to discuss signs and symptoms of specific diseases).
- Part B – Impact on the family (300 words). Explain the impact of this issue on the health of the family. (You will need to explore the psychological, social and cultural impact of the condition on the family and support your discussion with quality references.)
- Part C – Population impact (200 words). Explain the impact on the group from a population perspective. (Support your discussion with quality references).
- Part D – Implications for the role of the nurse (1000 words). Discuss the implications of parts A, B and C for the role of the nurse working within the Australian health care system, including the primary health care sector. (Please consider cultural awareness, knowledge, sensitivity and respecting individual differences around perspectives of health, healing practices and health care expectations. Support your discussion with quality references).
- Conclusion (100 words). Summarize your findings.
The assignment should include:
- Headings and sub-headings to clearly identify the part of the assignment you are answering.
- Logical planning and sequencing
- Include at least three quality references in Part A and B and C and at least six quality references for Part D.
- Referencing using the Harvard referencing guide UniSA which can be accessed via http://resource.unisa.edu.au/cokurse/view.php?id=1572&topic=4.
- Place your name and network user name as a header or footer on each page.
A report is a paper that states the findings of an investigation about a topic. For this assignment, you will report your findings from your readings about the topic. Reports have some of the following features:
- There are quite distinct sections with headings and sub-headings. (An essay, on the other hand, is one long ‘story’.)
- The headings and sub-headings make the structure of the report clear and explicit.
- Numbers or dot points are often a feature of a report.
This assignment question has been set up to make the different sections of your report very clear. Your report will have the following sub-headings.
Introduction
Impact of the health issue on the individual
Impact of the health issue for the family
Impact of the health issue on the population group
Implications for the role of the nurse
Conclusion
References
Other hints about reports:
When you draft the report, you can start writing any paragraph of any section – you don’t need to start at the beginning! Just start with a section you feel confident about to get you started. Once you have the paragraphs for a Part, you can link them together.
Other tips for writing reports include:
- Make sure that your report presents the ORDER of the information logically.
- you do have the option of using numbers and dot points in reports
- you can also use tables or graphs or pictures in reports
Analyzing the question
Use these 3 steps to analyze each Part of the question.
- Find the task word (e.g. compare, explain)
- Find the important content word/words (Take task word and add ‘what?’)
- Identify the focus or limits
PART A: Impact on the individual (300 words)
1.Task word
- Explain (show the reason for, or underlying cause of, or the means by which something occurs)
2.Important content word/s
- the impact (psychological, social and cultural)
- Focus or Limits
- on the health of the individual
- not signs and symptoms of the disease**
- 300 word limit
PART B: Impact on the family (300 words)
1.Task word
- Explain (show the reason for, or underlying cause of, or the means by which something occurs)
2.Important content word/s
- the impact (psychological, social and cultural)
- Focus or Limits
- on the health (psychological, social and cultural) of family
- not signs and symptoms of the disease**
- 300 word limit
PART C: Population impact (200 words)
- Task word
- Explain (show the reason for, or underlying cause of, or the means by which something occurs)
2.Important content word/s
- the impact (psychological, social and cultural)
- Focus or Limits
- on the group from a population perspective
- 200 word limit
PART D: Implications for the role of the nurse
- Task word
- Discuss (present different points of view about a subject from the readings and give a balanced range of information)
2.Important content words
- the implications of A, B & C
- Focus or Limits
- on the group
- from a population perspective
- 1000 words
- consider cultural awareness, knowledge, sensitivity and respecting individual differences around perspectives of health, healing practices and health care expectations
**This assessment requires you to focus on the impact and at what it means to live with a chronic health condition, chronic illness experience and related issues whether that be diabetes or mental illness. You need to think about the psychological, social and cultural impacts are of living with a chronic health issue on the individual, the family and on the population – and this is for a specific sub-population of your choice.
Note: The whole assignment is based on what you learn through reading reliable, scholarly, up to date sources of information. Therefore, you are required as stated in the question details, to acknowledge all your sources using the Harvard referencing system.
The Library Catalogue is one place you can find scholarly information for your report.
The Catalogue is available via the Library homepage, and searches both the Catalogue and many of the Library’s databases simultaneously.
Tip: Keep your searches simple by searching for one part of the project at a time. You probably will have to do several searches on the Catalogue, using different combinations of words to find all the information required for this project.
Before you start searching, think about what information you need:
- are there multiple words to describe the same idea? For example, overseas born people might also be referred to in the literature as refugees or migrants
- do the words have various endings? Diabetes is the condition, but the literature may also refer to diabetics.
For example, to find information about mental health and refugees in Australia, you could search for: refugees “mental health” australia. Use quotation marks “” if you want to search for a phrase, such as “mental health” or “overseas born” so the words sit next to each other.
Refine your search results
To make your results more specific to your topic, use the features on the left hand side under Refine Search:
- Click on Peer Reviewed
- To limit your results to more recent information, say from 2009 onwards, go to Date and type in 2009- 2014, then update
- To make your results even more specific, go to Subject. Look at the headings, and select one of interest for example refugees, or mental health
Step 1: Locating ABS web site
- From the Library home page, select Databases and Journals from the Useful Links
- From the database titleslist, select A
- Select ABS web site
- The database description page will open. Select the blue link under Access
- Select I agree to the terms and conditions of use
- This will take you the ABS website.
Step 2: Looking for data on Indigenous Australians?
In the ABS website, Indigenous Australians are referred to as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
- In the grey tool bar under the green Australian Bureau of Statistics banner, go to Topics at glance
- Select People, then Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
- Select Health
- The webpage will show links to Related Publications/Articles, for example:
o The Health and Welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (cat. no. 4704.0)
o Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey: First Results, Australia, 2012-13 (cat no. 4727.0.55.001)
o Scan through the various sections for relevant information:
Other resources and statistics
Other credible websites that could be used include:
- Australian Government Department of Health
This is the Australian Government website for Health with information for health professionals and consumers on a range of health topics as well as links to other health websites. See also:
o Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
o Rural and Regional Health Australia
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
The AIHW is Australia’s national agency for health and welfare statistics and information. Australia’s health 2012 is available here.
o Under National atlases and graphics click on Social Health Atlases of Australia
o Select Single Map , then select SA (or the state you have chosen)
o Scan the list to select your local government area.
- Health SA(opens in new window)
The South Australian Government’s website for Health provides a gateway to South Australia’s public health care system, with information for the community and health care professionals.
o Also see the Health reform section and the publication, South Australia’s Health Care Plan 2007-2016
o Country Health Services, and the Strategy for country health
- South Australian government health and wellbeing resources
Provides health resources on South Australia including statistical reports.
