Health Promotion in Nursing Practice
Health promotion is one the fundamental areas of focus in nursing practice. Nurse's especially public health nurses are more aware of the importance of promoting health in preventing diseases and the cost of illness. They use these strategies to share knowledge with the patients and general community.
Providing Health Education
Nurses play an active role in providing health related information to their patients, clients, and relatives. Recently, there in an increase in demand for health promotion information from nurses. Some hospitals have been introducing health promotion sessions involving nurses and the other health practitioners. Health promotion by nurses in a hospital setting has a more expansive role and is instrumental in affecting reform and organizational changes by influencing policy.
Health promotion intends to empower individuals whether they are patients of colleagues for them to know the right ways of improving lifestyle and make it better. It is however essential for nurses to underhand the real meaning and right approach to health promotion. Some confuse it for health education intervention. Intervention takes place when a person has a disease that requires treatments and management through lifestyle changes. Health promotion is different since it requires promoting healthy living to prevent the occurrence of disease.
Influencing behavioral change
When nurses are serving patients, they act as informers on the best practices for empowering their changes to change their lifestyle to improve their wellness and influence behavior change. The role of nurses as educators is a central feature in health promotion. Nurses are the most accessible source of information on the disease from diagnosis, prognosis to treatment. More significantly, the effort by nurses in health promotion helps in keeping many diseases at bay as they inform their client about the things they should do to be in a better healthier shape such as exercising and eating healthy food. They also advise their charges about the aspects of life that need to change as they are likely to compromise on their health. For instance, nurses encourage their clients to stop smoking or taking oily dishes.
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At the end of a discussion, the patient is empowered with helpful information that assists them to decide on how to live healthier. Nurses are better in influencing behavioral outcomes as they give their advice after assessing the particular needs and problems by a patient.A patient is a more likely to comply after getting custom interventions than act on information for everyone. The measure of success is noticed by determining the degree of compliance and adoption of self-management techniques.
Responsibilities of Health Promotion in Nursing Practice
Nurses who engage in health promotion take on these responsibilities or at least a few of them.
- Evaluate health trends and risk factors of the groups and help in determining priorities for the seek interventions
- Work with communities or specific groups within a population to develop public policies for guiding targeted health promotion prevention of diseases
- Assess and evaluate health care services dealing with health promotion to make sure that people are aware of their availability and assist them in utilizing those that are most suitable for their lifestyle
- Provide their input to interdisciplinary programs for monitoring, anticipating and responding to public health problems in their population groups
- Offer health education, primary attention and continuing care management to people and families that have are vulnerable or at a higher risk of contracting certain ailments.
Nursing practice has a critical role in health promotion in hospital settings and within the community. Community nurses are crucial in health promotion for the elderly who suffers from chronic diseases. Their kind of health promotion helps on managing their conditions to reduce their suffering and increase the quality of life. It is essential to ensure that patients get much information as possible regarding their medical condition or ways of changing their lifestyle to prevent diseases.
Nurses have an edge over of other healthcare professionals since their service involves taking care of their patients and not just treating.
