Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

 

Health Promotion is a philosophy that is centered on the well-being of individuals. Thus, it seeks to improve participation of people, groups, and organizations in matters that relate to the health sector. The participation of people, organizations, and groups is essential as it facilitates shaping of the health practices and optimizing both collective and individual well-being.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

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From the above description, thus, Health Promotion entails the process of facilitating people to amplify control over and perk up their health. It can also be deemed as a mediating strategy aimed at creating social responsibility and personal choice regarding health. Notably, empowerment plays a significant part in health promotion as it allows for shifting of physical and social conditions, which necessitate inequalities. Thus, empowerment results in equitable relationships in terms of resources, authority, and status. Health promotion plays a significant role in nursing. The main roles played by health promotion in nursing include conducting behavioral, risk-oriented, and lifestyle health education. The responsibilities of nursing roles evolve from the moving from treatment to prevention based in terms of what the nurses will be teaching people. Therefore, this essay seeks to expound on the role of health promotion in the nursing practice, the evolution of nursing practice in health practice, and comparison of the three levels of health promotion.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

Health promotion plays several roles in the nursing practice. Maville and Huerta (2012) indicate that the most essential roles revolve around ensuring that nurses gain the basic idea behind empowering people. Thus, two main roles are contributed by health promotion in nursing. These include behavioral approach and an approach that concerns the conditions of health.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay. Firstly, health promotion facilitates the behavioral approach in nursing through ensuring that nurses garner skills relevant for empowering patients at diverse levels of nursing. For instance, the empowering under the behavioral approach involves educating patients on how to manage different types of illnesses. Health promotion under the behavioral approach also ensures that nurses advance quality services to patients that will ensure their fast recovery. For instance, health promotion offers nurses skills relevant to promote positivity among patients that they are taking care of. Notably, the behavioral approach adopted by a nurse is instrumental to a patient’s recovery because it affects a patient’s sense of worthiness depending on the care advanced by the nurse. The behavioral approach also touches on the lifestyle led by individual nurses. Under this, Piper (2009) asserts that nurses should put to practice healthy living because it has an impact on patients. On the other hand, regarding the approach concerned with the conditions of health, health promotion instills nurses with skills that they can convey to people regarding ways to prevent outbreaks of diseases. Thus, if nurses educate people regarding methods of preventing occurrences of outbreaks, people are empowered health wise, as they will be informed regarding how to prevent a certain disease.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

According to Maville and Huerta (2012), nursing roles and responsibilities in health promotion have evolved significantly. It is due to the fact that in the past most of the nursing roles and responsibilities in health promotion involved teaching of patients methods of preventing diseases. However, Maville and Huerta (2012) point that with the escalating cases of illnesses, the historical method involving nursing roles and responsibilities had to be abandoned. Thus, currently and in the future the nursing roles and responsibilities in health promotion will focus on educating people regarding ways of remaining healthy. Such move is deemed to be beneficial in comparison to the historical method as it facilitates more people to become aware of activities that promote good health as it promotes individual awareness of issues related to health and health for their families (Maville & Huerta, 2012).Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

The first level of health promotion prevention, which is primary prevention, entails the preventing of a disease from happening. Notably, this level of health promotion prevention is focused on the reduction of the incidence and prevalence of a disease. Thus, at this level of health prevention promotion, the nurses encourage people to guard themselves against environments or situations that will result in becoming affected by a disease.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay. Secondary prevention that involves screening and testing is focussed on maintenance of good health. That is why screening and testing are undertaken for the purpose of early detection of a disease. Lastly, tertiary prevention,which is concerned with the treatment of an illness, is focussed on people that have shown symptoms or have tested positive to a certain disease (Piper, 2009). Five things are aimed at this level of treatment, and they include reducing pain from the disease, slowing down the spread of the disease, preventing other infections resulting from the disease, provision of quality care to people suffering from the disease, and lastly, restoring the health of the affected persons.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

In conclusion, this essay has explicated what health promotion in nursing care entails. In addition, the purpose of health promotion in nursing has been examined, and two roles established, which include behavioral and skills approaches. The evolution of nurses roles and responsibilities in regard to health promotion entails the shift from curing diseases to prevention. Lastly, different levels of health promotion prevention have been examined. The primary level concerns prevention of a disease while the second is focused on early detection by the nurses. Tertiary level is focused on treatment and prevention of further damage by the identified disease.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

Nurses Role in Health Promotion for Patients

Nurses' role in health promotion has a high rate of success since they work in various settings and interact with people from different cadres. They look after patients in healthcare facilities, patient homes and within the community. Most of the time, they perform a diagnosis and give the instructions to care givers hence they are the people to spend more time with the patients. Nurses therefore play a “key role in promoting patient health” (Irvine, 2005). The long hours they spend providing care enables them to understand other life aspects by patients in addition to the ailment they are recovering from to determine if their lifestyle is healthy. They are also able to follow up if a patient is following the instructions and advice on improving the quality of life.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

Nurses interact widely with patients at different places getting an environment to educate and discuss the health status than the physicians who only meet with a patient in hospitals and clinics. It is the reason behind the argument that nurses have a potentially critical role in promoting patients’ health (Irvine, 2005). A good example is that it is the responsibility of nurses to provide continuity of care to a patient after a hospital discharge. Usually a community nurse will follow up on the progress of recovery. It will include educating the patients on how to live a healthier life and prevent diseases. For patients who are under the care of their families, a nurse also becomes an agent of healthy promotion to other people in the home. The ultimate point is that nurses can reach everyone.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

Nurses Role in Health Promotion in Communities

To strengthen communities and to create a supportive environment are some of the pillars for supporting the initiative by world health organization (WHO) for having "health for all."Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

In every community, there is a nurse, but it is not usual to have doctors in the smaller neighborhoods. The proximity of nurses to members of the community enables them to be educators, advocates, and coordinators of promotion of health including lifestyle changes. (Blais& Hayes, 2011). Usually, it is upon nurses to educate their patients about the benefits of observing a healthy lifestyle including the essential habits that people neglect such as exercising, taking a balanced diet, exercising and getting an adequate amount of sleep.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

A nurse can coordinate a healthy plan with patients to substitute unhealthy choices with wholesome and beneficial alternatives. For instance, nurses are essential in creating a healthy meal plan and regimen for exercising to help obese persons in reducing their weight.

Another critical role that nurses play in promoting health is to encourage members of the community to attend regular screenings and early detection diagnostic tests (Blais& Hayes, 2011). The motivation helps in early detection of terminal illnesses such as cancer before reaching life threatening level.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

Nurses Role in Health Promotion By Immunization

Immunization is a critical element and cost effective way of promoting preventive care. According to WHO, vaccination prevents up to three million deaths per year. Nurses play an essential role in advancing the health of children by administering an immunization.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

"When functioning in a health promotion model" (Rankin 2005), each contact that nurse have with patients or their families is an opportunity to educate their patients or families. They advise parents on the excellent ways of taking care of their kids and coordinate childhood immunization programs in their respective areas. Also, they administer recommended immunization such as Hepatitis B vaccinations to adults, offer advice and administer travel vaccines.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.

Conclusion

As health care gravitates more from treatment to prevention of infections, nurses have a significant role in health promotion for patients, communities, and immunization for preventive purpose. With a range of ways to promote healthy living and preventing disease, nurses should be proactive in providing education on eliminating risk factors.Health Promotion in Nursing Care Essay.