The Appalachian cultural group has faced many adversities related to low levels of education, poverty and health issues. In the following discussion, the Appalachian disparities will be examined and how these inequalities affect their health status, employment and education. Finally, two nursing interventions will be addressed to decrease the health disparities and the biggest nursing challenge that occurs when implementing these nursing interventions.
There is a fairly large Appalachian population in Ohio and the Appalachia region extends crossing thirteen states within the United States. According to Giger & Davidhizar (2013), nine of the states have a large Appalachian culture with high rates of poverty, unemployment and low income. The residences usually have poor health status due to inaccessibility to health care, lack of insurance and no access to preventative care. Many parents cannot afford to buy clothing and pay for school fees as well as provide adequate transportation to school. This sets the students up for potential failure and many
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The biggest challenge is overcoming these barriers due to the lack of available resources and strong religious beliefs that affects their health promotions. It is imperative that Appalachia gets public assistance on preventative care and education to encourage better health conditions. The Health Wagon founded in 1980 to provide free health care to medically under-served people in the mountains of Southwest Virginia in Central Appalachia Wagon, which operates as a mobile health clinic that provides comprehensive primary health care services and emphasizes on education and prevention care (Gardner, Gavaza, Meade, & Adkins, 2012). This gives hope of achieving health success among the Appalachian culture with programs geared toward preventative treatment and education