Rural Healthcare
I WISH we lived in a world where everyone had equal access to modern medical facilities but the reality is we don't and PRETENDING that we do and holding residents of rural areas to an unattainable standard costs lives.Perhaps a REAL medical professional could develop a course or something for helping close that gap and give people in very rural areas pragmatic emergency procedures that a non-professional can perform instead of watching someone die while waiting for an ambulance.
I do a lot of writing on health topics. I have a very serious medical condition that I manage with diet and lifestyle and I paid accident claims for a major insurance company for five years, so I have education in things like medical terminology and experience reading medical records.
Legally speaking, if you are an individual adult living in the middle of nowhere and you think I make sense, you are free to use my information. If you are a licensed physician, you can start a study or look up studies or get other legally defensible verification.
What if you are a nurse in a rural clinic trying to improve public health and this sounds good to you, but you know it's legally on shaky ground and you can't just outright promote my writing as your solution on the ground?
A doula is a non-medical professional who provides guidance for the service of others and who supports another person (the doula's client) through a significant health-related experience, such as childbirth, miscarriage, induced abortion or stillbirth, as well as non-reproductive experiences such as dying.A doula might also provide support to the client's partner, family, and friends.
So a doula is a form of healthcare consultant who is knowledgeable about specific health related issues, like pregnancy, but is not a medical professional. Among other things, they would provide information about pregnancy-specific nutritional needs.
In some states, a Nurse Practitioner can work independently and in some states a Nurse Practitioner must have everything reviewed and approved by a physician. Physician's Assistant is another healthcare title that's below doctor but sometimes works independently.
I had minor outpatient surgery performed by a Physician's Assistant who had worked for years with a cosmetic surgeon. The scar from the surgery is invisible and on my neck where it could have been significantly disfiguring.
If you wanted to improve healthcare in very rural parts of the US, this would not be instanteous. You would need to make a list of potential solutions and do some research and you would be breaking ground on creating a new model for how to adequately serve the local residents given the financial and practical realities on the ground.
That might look something like:
1. Put together data on the number of births in the county and possibly a couple of other counties.
2. Find the studies or data to cite for backing up my claims that getting adequate prenatal information and care reduces need for medical intervention like C section at time of birth.
3. Try to figure out how to attract a doula and midwife to the area or find some means to hire such.
You could also set goals for prevention and for educating locals about prevention. Here's a piece I did about preventing accidents and I cited known sources like pointing and calling as a proven best practice used on the highly reliable Japanese train system.
Make a list of stuff you like and then check what you feel you can readily use without getting into legal trouble. The pieces you like but can't readily support with studies or similar go on your wish list and you start a file and work out the details over time as you come across citations or additional information that makes it viable.
Some parts of my health writing are very well supported and I link out to more neutral sources. You may be able to suggest self care options like starting a health journal as a best practice. You may be able to link to my writing as a source if you make clear distinctions between citing it and endorsing it.
If you state "Here is an example of a person who used a health journal and reports being satisfied." you probably don't need to defend that. If you state that you agree with something I recommend, you had better be prepared to substantiate your stated medical opinion.
Reproductive health is a politically charged topic currently.
The reality is you cannot educate people about avoiding miscarriage without left-handedly informing them how to induce it, but be very careful how you word such information lest you be accused of promoting abortion.
I personally think if you want to help a poorly educated populace have a healthy pregnancy, you need to inform them what items are potentially dangerous. But in the current political atmosphere, no matter your intentions, putting together educational materials about reproductive health is a potential minefield.