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Healthcare Professionals And Refine The Nursing Practices

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As health providers, it is our duty to ensure that an individual learns how to properly take care of his or her own health and make appropriate and healthy choices. By being proactive in their healthcare, individuals are more likely to prevent and avoid health complications while promoting their own overall health. Many nursing theories have been proposed in order to guide healthcare professionals and refine the nursing practices. One of the more prominent theories is the Heath Promotion Model (HPM) proposed by the nursing theorist Nola Pender. During her time as a nurse, Pender observed that healthcare professionals focused solely on treating diseases and related processes rather than focusing on preventing them in the first place. She stated that health was an optimistic active state rather than lack of disease. After receiving her degrees in psychology and education, Pender used her knowledge to form the basis of her theory. She originally proposed the HPM in 1982 but then revised it later in 1987, 1996, and then once more in 2002 (Pender, 2012). The HPM explains the complex relationship existing between individuals and their environment in the search of better health. It also emphasizes on healthy choices and personal behavior changes in the process of preventing illness and disease (Pender, 1996, p.55). The HPM pinpoints three essential concepts including “individual characteristics and experiences, behavior specific cognitions and effects, and behavioral outcomes”
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