Health as a Daily Resource

Introduction

Health promotion is the process of empowering people through literacy, creating supportive environments and strengthened social networks to heighten control of their health (Edelman et al., 2017). The synergy from these health policies ensures better and effective care for all. Some of the community environments for health promotion include schools, places of work and healthcare centres. Health promotion policies, practice and studies are guided by values such as public participation, partnerships, community empowerment and commitment to equity for health opportunities.

Health is a primary resource necessary in everyday life of a human being. This positive concept emphasizes personal and social support and promotes physical capabilities. Programs on health promotion and disease control focus on maintaining quality health standards of people within communities. Through such pragmas, people are engaged and empowered with the knowledge to change their lifestyles and choose healthy behaviours that would, in turn, help reduce the risk of development and continuance of chronic diseases and other morbidities. Health promotion focuses on a wide range of factors (Beaudet et al., 2011). The process focuses on a wide variety of environmental and social interventions, not only on the individual but also the community at large. The wellness of an individual refers to the effective decisions and attitudes attributed to an individual which ultimately contribute to the health outcomes and behaviours of a person. Health promotion is, therefore, not only a concept that affirms responsibility upon the health sector, and people's lifestyles, but also wellbeing.

The role nurses play in the promotion of public health is very important. Health promotion by nurses is commonly associated with disease preventions and the focus to change behaviours of people concerning their status on health. The concept of health promotion focuses on an area in nursing known as public health. This nursing area primarily focuses on introducing and developing preventive care and health promotion to larger populations. This confers general duties to public health nurses, such as the duty of partnering and collaborating with the societies and communities in addressing common health obstacles (Goodman et al., 2011). Some of the approaches nurses employ in achieving these responsibilities include, administration of education and referrals to other health care experts, sensitization of the community and other stakeholders, participating in health promotion exercises such as immunization among others.

This essay analyzes the concept of health promotion by nurses; the clinical basis of health promotion by nurses, the competencies associated with the idea, the culture and the range of expertise related to health promotion practice. This essay also looks at some of the problems that act as obstacles to the effective delivery of health promotion techniques by nurses.

Background

The World Health Organization first defined ‘health promotion’ in 1986 as the process by which public health is improved through enabling control by the public over their health. From a traditional point of view, health promotion focus was on the prevention of diseases and the changing of the behaviours of individuals towards better health. The development of nursing practice over the years has however improved this concept since nurses have multidisciplinary experience and knowledge of health promotion, which makes their roles as health promoters rather complex (Kemppainen et al., 2013).

In the 19th century, Florence Nightingale defined health as the state at which no illness or disease is present. This definition has however evolved, for instance, the World Health Organization defines health as not only the state of absence of disease or infirmity but also a state of complete social, mental or physical wellbeing. This adds on to the definition of health promotion. These definitions play considerable roles in the health care sector, particularly to nurses, who play a vital role in preventive care and health promotion in general (Howze et al., 2009). Throughout history, the practice has attempted to conform to the changes in society. Nursing practice has, as a result, required its professionals to reflect on the processes of care provided and to implement measures that would reflect health promotion efforts and individualized care. Nurses have continually developed an awareness of care, particularly in aspects of nursing such as teaching, practice, and research and in the building of a theoretical body associated with health promotion. This coincides with the belief that nurses, as members of leaders of the nursing team and the multidisciplinary health team, have the role of developing effective and safe interventions while taking health promotion into account (Nascimento et al., 2009).

Nurses Role in Health Promotion for Patients

In the past, nurses offered patient education based on their current illness and how to cure their situation. The knowledge was strictly subjective and didn't cater to any additional concern. However, today patient education has evolved and aims at ensuring optimum health and lifestyles that limit illnesses whatsoever. The focus is mainly on future health and management and wellness of the entire body (Fertman & Allensworth, 2016).

On the other hand, patients have become more aware of the gains of better health, and to facilitate and implement these practices, they prefer better information delivery from the nurses. Because of this health promotion transformation nurses have increased their knowledge of disease process and various interventions that can be used by patients to improve their wellbeing and fitness. Besides, the nurses have become more knowledgeable about evidence-based practices and procedures to educate patients and also family members on disease management.

In this regard, health promotion has a high rate of success since the nurses work in several settings and interact with patients from different sets. For instance, they provide care in homes, healthcare centres and even in the community. Most of the time at these facilities, they would diagnose and give instructions to patients and also caregivers since they are the ones who spend significant time with the patients.

Nurses thus play a primary role in enhancing patient health (Sharma, 2016). The long periods they devote to providing care to the patients facilitates their understanding of the life aspects of the patient, giving them the insight to determine whether the patient is living healthy. From this aspect, the nurses can follow up the patient's lifestyle and advice on approaches the patients can take to improve their health.

Secondly, nurses interact broadly with patients in several settings, from these interactions they get a platform of educating and discussing the health status as compared with the physicians who only have contact with the patient at the healthcare facility. This is one of the reasons why nurses have a potentially crucial role in health promotion (Phillips, 2019). For instance, it is a nurse's responsibility to offer continuity of care to a patient after receiving a discharge from the healthcare facility. In this situation, a nurse will always follow up the recovery progress and educate the patient on ways to improve their health. Additionally, for the patients who are under the care of their families, a nurse becomes an agent of health promotion to the family members also. This association shows that the nurse can reach everyone.

When working within a health promotion paradigm, every interaction a nurse has with a patient becomes an educational involvement. For instance, when a nurse is changing a dressing on a diabetic foot ulcer, the nurse gets an opportunity to talk about blood sugar testing and the control measures. When a patient visits a doctor's office because of a cut, the nurse finds it ideal for checking the chart for the latest tetanus booster. At home discussing new-born care, the nurse finds it perfect to talk about childhood vaccine calendar, suggest supplements for the baby or even the growing stages of an older sibling. These instances show that the nurse is practising health promotion strategies continuously. Acknowledgement of these understated, yet valuable conversations is significant in giving recognition to the importance of nurses as health promoters.

Nurses Role in Health Promotion in Communities

One of the pillars for supporting health promotion initiative by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is to strengthen communities and enable a supportive environment for all (Haber, 2019). Every community has a nurse; this is uncommon for doctors, especially in smaller neighbourhoods. The closeness of the nurse to the community members allows them to be educators, advocates and coordinators of health promotion strategies including lifestyle change (Phillips, 2019). For instance, the community nurse has a responsibility of educating members regarding the benefits of living healthy such as habits that people neglect, including exercising, observing a balanced diet and sleeping adequately. Also, the nurse can coordinate a robust plan with community members to substitute unhealthy options with beneficial solutions. For example, nurses are vital in developing a healthy meal plan and routine to assist obese people to reduce their weight.

Secondly, the nurses encourage community members to visit healthcare facilities for regular screenings and early detection diagnostic examinations. This stimulus assists in discovery and suppressing terminal illnesses, including cancer and diabetes before advancing to life-threatening stages.

Nurses Role in Health Promotion by Immunization

Immunization is a vital aspect and an efficient approach to health promotion (Hubley & Copeman, 2018). The WHO report notes that vaccination prevents approximately 3 million deaths in a year (Dull et al., 2019). In this regard, nurses are the stakeholders undertaking the essential role of promoting children health by administering the immunization dosage. While functioning in a health promotion paradigm, every contact the nurses make with patient or families provides them with a chance to educate their patients. For instance, they could advise the parents on practical approaches to taking care of their kids; besides, they will also coordinate childhood immunization packages in their relevant capacities. Apart from immunizing children, the nurses can also administer proper vaccination, including hepatitis B to adults, provide advisory and administer transportable medications.

Another role nurses' play in health promotion is collaborating with all stakeholders involved in ensuring a patient's health improves. For instance, a nurse can partner with another nurse or doctor in a different healthcare facility where the patient has been referred to share necessary information, including treatment plan and diagnosis of the patient. This action will enhance faster recovery and reduce the severity of the disease.

Obstacles to the effective delivery of health promotion techniques by nurses

Lack of resources

Effective health promotion depends on the availability of resources such as time, health education material and equipment (Swanson, 2017). Without enough time, nurses won't have an opportunity to visit patients in homes to provide continuity of care. Without a useful health promotion material, i.e. (the one that suits the patient's learning needs) the health promotion through education will be a waste of time and also to the individual.

Lack of skills in health promotion activities

Some health promotion skills are still unclear to nurses, for instance, communication skills are essential in encouraging patients and families in making decisions related to treatment or making patients share their feelings concerning the situations surrounding a severe illness (Swanson, 2017). If a nurse is not able to communicate correctly, then they won't provide the motivation they seek to enable patients to improve their health. Besides, some other skill-related competencies include the ability to offer support in behavioural changes in patients and the skill to respond to patient’s outlooks and principles. If a nurse doesn’t have the competence to gather relevant information and involve in teamwork activities, then their health promotion activities will be ineffective.

Conclusion

As healthcare advances more from treatment to prevention of illnesses, nurses play a crucial role in health promotion for patients, families, community and immunization for a preventive drive. With their health promotion activities based on sound knowledge and appropriate skills, nurses could achieve more in health promotion in all settings. Even though nursing is a suitable profession to promote health, it is associated with several barriers, including lack of resources and necessary skills to enable effective service delivery. With several approaches to promote healthy living and disease prevention, nurses need to be more proactive in offering knowledge on eliminating risk factors of illnesses.

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