Nurses Play A Huge Role During Illness Prevention And Health Promotion

“Nurses are more than caregivers in today’s healthcare settings. They are teachers, advocates and pioneers in improving healthcare. They are stepping out of the old model and taking ownership for changes in healthcare. Nurses are developing their own scientific research programs to improve patient care. They are playing a pivotal role in healthcare reform. Nurses are becoming leaders, not followers in healthcare reform.”

Health promotion includes providing activities that improve a person’s health. These activities assist patients to “maintain or enhance their present levels of health. Health promotion activities motivate people to act positively to reach more stable levels of health” (Potter & Perry, 2005, p. 97). In order for nurses to assist patients in obtaining healthy lifestyles, they must first assess a patient’s perception of health. The World Health Organization defines health as a “state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (as cited in Potter & Perry, 2005, p. 91). There are many nursing theories that are based on an individual’s perception of health. This paper will

According to the World Health Organization health promotion is defined as "The process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behavior towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions." (WHO, 2013) This applies to the nursing profession in that nurses are educating patient on the steps needed for their health such as diet, exercise, therapies, and medication compliance.

Finkelman, A. (2013) Health promotion, Disease Prevention, and Illness: A community Perspective.. In Professional Nursing Concepts (Second ed., pp 201-227). Burlington: Jones & Bartlet Learning.

The way that this can have an impact on health promotion efforts is by having Nurse Practitioners educating patients about certain issues (i.e. obesity of diabetes). What is happening is most individuals will learn about their health and how to deal with a host of conditions from their primary care provider. This is because the majority of insurance companies will restrict the patient’s access to specialists (based on a referral from their

For many years, health promotions and prevention has been the focus for healthcare providers, especially nurses. Health promotion seeks to improve a person or population’s health by teaching about and helps people become more aware of risky behaviors associated with different diseases. It encourages individuals to take preventative measures to prevent onset or worsening of a disease or illness. It encourages a healthier lifestyle (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). The strategy is to help people make health improvements or prevention before illness occurs.

Health promotion can be accomplished in various environments. Schools can be utilized for education purposes. Films, brochures, lectures, and class discussions can be routes of teaching about nutrition, hygiene, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and abuse. Health departments can distribute pamphlets concerning the importance of vaccinations and preventive strategies against sexually transmitted diseases. Hospitals and medical clinics can conduct health fairs that offer free blood pressure evaluations and cholesterol screenings. They can also educate the public about the serious signs and symptoms of a heart attack, stroke, dehydration, and heat exhaustion.

Health promotion is utmost important to optimize and or to ensure a globalize good quality health. It is a multifactor approach and moreover the health care costs can be reduced to a great extent. Thus today’s bad economic condition can be changed greatly. This enables every individual to function effectively and appropriately. It is necessary to explore concepts of health by interactions between physical, social, psychological and spiritual aspects of life.(Edelman 2010). To prevent further progression of diseases and various opportunistic infections nurses should implement multiple health education strategies and teaching styles. While assessing the patients and their families, present health status, their education, economy, supportive systems, learning skills and its strategies all have to be taken in to consideration. Furthermore implementing primary, secondary and tertiary preventive measures to promote health of all populations in every country thus globalize health promotion is achievable. By considering various aspects of health promotion, evaluating the effectiveness of assessments

Nurses take on educator roles both in educating the public on their health and as educators in clinical practice and academic settings. As a public educator, nurses teach and counsel patients and families to enhance health and well-being. Patient and family health education is an important step in preventing disease. In order to be able to properly educate their clients on health promotion and well-being, nurses must first fully understand “health”. Nurses do not view health as “the absence of illness” but “define health as the extent to which an individual or group is able to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs and to change or cope with the environment in which they live.” (CARNA, 2005, p.2). Nurses hold a holistic view of the person and health and address health within the context of a person’s wholeness, including biological, emotional, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. Incorporating these ideas, nurses use the determinants of health as a way of dealing with and achieving health for an individual. Nurses recognize the broad determinants of health as income & social status, education, culture, physical environments, gender, health services, social support networks, employment & working conditions, health services, personal health practices, and biology & genetic endowment.

Health promotion (HP) is a multi-dimensional and complex concept which the researcher is frequently used and defined in different ways. One of the nursing roles for nurses is the promoter of health; therefore it would be useful to attempt to clarify the concept. This article develops a concept analysis is to clarify the meaning of an existing concept of HP using the process developed by Pender, Murdaugh, and Parsons (2006). The method suggested by Walker and Avant guided this concept analysis. Attributes, model cases, antecedents and consequences, and empirical references are described. The implications for further research are also described.

Nurses are known as the heart of health care. Being a nurse is a demanding job that requires commitment, but does not lack rewards. A fact stated by the American Association of Colleges of Nurses claims that “Nurses comprise the largest single component of hospital staff, are the primary providers of hospital patient care, and deliver most of the nation 's long-term care” (“Nursing Fact Sheet”). With many roles throughout the healthcare system as a whole, nurses are a large, very important role that interacts with every other part of the health care system. They have great qualities that not everyone has. They are highly compassionate, caring, professional, diligent and understanding individuals. A nurse experiences people at their worst and still care for patients in a way that no one else would. All these honest points prove that nurses are the most important members of the health care system because, nurses spend the most time with patients, nurses are the managers of patient care; they are teachers and are great with conflict resolution.

Health promotion and teaching are important tools for nursing. By promoting health and health teaching, nurses can help lay the foundation for a healthier future.

The World Health Organisation - WHO (2015) defines Health Promotion as fundamental discipline in disease prevention through social /environmental intervention, health education and behaviour change towards health. This description coincides with Dahlgren and Whitehead’s Social Determinants of Health (1992) where the individual’s health is not only limited to medical factors but it is largely influenced by lifestyle – rooting from its social factors from familial, societal to national level. In this regard, the vital role of the nurse as a health promotion practitioner is to uphold individual’s autonomy by increasing their knowledge about how the body functions to prevent diseases and making them aware of how the healthcare

Traditionally the United States health care system has been sickness-oriented. However, in the last two decades, a new paradigm has emerged. This new paradigm emphasizes wellness rather than sickness. As a result in this change in focus, health promotion is now an integral part of the nursing profession. This research paper will review current literature from three professional sources relative to the nursing profession and health promotion. This paper will analyze: 1. How is health promotion defined? 2. What is the purpose of health promotion? 3. How has the role of a nurse changed as the result of

The health promotion model is a theory of nursing that was developed by Dr. Nola Pender. Her theory was first proposed in 1982 and then revised in 1996. Dr. Pender was influenced by the work of James Hall, who studied people’s behavior and its correlation to health. Her work is a middle-range theory, as there are specific concepts that are observable, that she designed to be a counterpart to models of health protection in which health is simply viewed as the absence of illness. Pender’s theory was critiqued using the criteria from Fawcett (2005). Although there are limitations to Pender’s health promotion model, her theory is the best to use in nursing as it focuses on the promotion of individualized optimal health and produces increased positive outcomes.