Health Promotion in Nursing Care
Prepare this assignment according the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, An
abstract is not required.
From the Library, select and review three recent (published within the last 5 years) journal
articles (one of each of the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of health promotion) in
nursing practice.
Prepare an essay (750-1,000) words in which you review and compare the three articles you
have selected for this assignment. Address the following:
-Introduction
-Body
1.How is health promotion defined?
2.What is the purpose of health promotion in nursing practice?
3.How are nursing roles and responsibilities evolving in health promotion?
4.Explain the implementation methods for health promotion that encompasses all areas of
nursing.
5.Compare the three levels of health promotion: primary, secondary, and tertiary
prevention.
-Conclusion
-Reference
Health Promotion
Introduction
Health is the state of being physically, psychologically and socially upright. As opposed
to what many think, being healthy is not the state of not having a disease. Being healthy is one of
the factors that enable people to be productive and fulfill their daily obligations. Health is one of
the basic requirements of being alive for any human being and, therefore, should be held in high
regard (Pender, Murdaugh & Parsons, 2010). There are several factors that determine whether a
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person leads a healthy live or not. These are the basic requirements such as food, shelter, and
clothing. This is because with the absence of these, a person is bound to encounter psychological
turmoil and even in some cases, serious health conditions. Food for example, has been known to
cause many of the illnesses. Its absence may lead to malnutrition, while its presence may lead to
lifestyle diseases such as type-1 and type-2 diabetes. In this paper, we are going to analyze the
role of nursing in health promotion.
Health promotion and its purpose
According to World Health Organization, health promotion is the process of helping
people have control of factors that lead to a healthy life. Different strategies have been developed
which serve as the guidelines for having a healthy community. The first strategy is to create an
environment where people are able to exploit their full potential in order to acquire maximum
health benefits. The move is in support of other factors such as educating people of healthy
feeding and living habits in order to prevent some diseases such as the above mentioned lifestyle
diseases. Building a public policy that enables an environment for people to live a healthy life is
another factor in promoting health for the people (Pray, 2013). The best strategy that can be used
to promote health is distributing information at personal level. Each individual is encouraged to
understand that his/her contribution is paramount to having a healthy society. In addition, people
should be made to understand the benefits of having a healthy society and how the benefits
impact them at individual level. Apart from helping people develop control on factors promoting
health, it is also the task of health promoters to ensure that the environment exists where these
factors can be applied and let to work.
The role of nurses in health promotion
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The nurses have an integral role to play in ensuring that health promotion is achieved and
applied accordingly. This is done through capacity building in the task. Nurses build capacity
through acquisition of the necessary skills and competencies acquired during their career and
applying them at personal level by making the right and healthy choices. The nurses should also
invest their time to evaluate health promotion strategies to ensure that they fit accordingly to
their aim and objectives once initiated (Pray, 2013). The move helps evaluators to determine if
the process was fit or not. Nurses can also lobby the existing political leaders as well as
community leaders to help in mobilizing resources to help health promotion in the society they
live in. Moreover, it is the duty of the nurse to identify the areas that need addressing when it
comes to health promotion. This is because different places have different problems to deal with
in terms of health needs. Some areas may have plenty of resources which the people do not know
how to put in the right proportions to achieve a healthy life.
The nurse has different places where he/she can apply her skills to promote health. In
collaboration in institutions such as schools, hospitals, online platforms and community
participation, the nurse can achieve a lot in helping promote health ion the society.
Implementation strategies
In a health promotion project, implementation strategies rely on management principles
and ability to monitor the progress in real life (Pray, 2013). Ensuring that high standards of the
budget are met is also another key aspect of ensuring success. The key factors to consider in
implementing the strategies are monitoring of the progress and identify any developing factors
on the way. In addition, clear decision making protocol ensures that there are little problems in
dealing with arising matters in the field or the platform chosen for health promotion. The process
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should also be accompanied with constant collection and recording of data which is later top be
analyzed to help strategize for the future.
There are three levels of health promotion. These are primary health promotion,
secondary level and tertiary level of health care (Hubley & Copeman, 2013). The primary level
of health promotion seeks to prevent the onset of diseases by educating and taking steps that help
prevent the infection. It involves activities such as counseling of people at risk, having publicity
campaigns that alert people of existence of particular epidemics, and providing information on
healthy feeding habits (Pender, Murdaugh & Parsons, 2010). The secondary level of health
promotion involves testing and treating of the illnesses in the patients while the tertiary level
involves follow up activities that help mitigate the effects of the disease and its trend over time.
In the application of tertiary level of disease control, the indication is that the disease is
already established and the primary level has already failed. It involved handling the effects of
the disease and preventing opportunistic infections that may accompany the disease. Secondary
detection may be applied to mitigate the effects of the disease at tertiary level.
Conclusion
In health promotion, everyone beginning with the medical practitioners to the population
should realize the role he/she has to play to ensure that the society lives a healthy life. Most
people living in the society do not realize their role in keeping the living conditions healthy while
much medical staff does not know another role they can play apart from handling patients in the
hospitals. In addition, the three levels of health promotion are integral in preventing, handling
and forecasting the trend in order to prepare for illnesses better in the future.
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References
Hubley, J., & Copeman, J. (2013). Practical health promotion (2 nd ed.). Cambridge: Polity.
Pender, N., Murdaugh, C., & Parsons, M. (2010). Health promotion in nursing practice (1 st ed.).
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
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Pray, S. (2013). Health Promotion and Wellness: An Evidence-based Guide to Clinical
Preventive Services. In C. Hawk & W. Evans (Eds), Focus On Alternative And
Complementary Therapies, 18(3), 18.