Advocating for Health and Education

Advocating for Health and Education
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Advocating for Health and Education
Health education is a profession that strives to promote and see the success of family, individual, community and organizational health. In order to ensure that it is successful, health education must follow the Health Code of Ethics which provides the foundation of shared values for its practice (NCHEC, 2008). Some of these values articulated in the Health Code of Ethics apply to the Bronx Health Reach program. The program comprising a coalition of community based organizations and health care providers are engaged in improving health conditions in the Bronx neighborhood. They aim at identifying and eradicating the main causes of the ethnic and racial health disparities in the region.
For this program to function efficiently, it must work in line with the Health Code of Ethics. First, the program has a responsibility to the people living in Bronx. In this regard, it is charged with the responsibility of educating the public on disease prevention and cure. Bronx program has taken initiatives to educate the public on factors that promote health conditions that bring about the disparity, such as heart diseases. The health education conducted by the program helps in promoting the quality of life and wellness of people living in Bronx.
Secondly, the program conducts research in order to understand the barriers to heath care well. These researches and surveys conducted assist health educators to contribute positively to the population and profession’s health. This is because the surveys conducted by the Bronx program bring to light how ethnicity and racism affects the health care system. Therefore, it gives all the stakeholders in health care an opportunity to find the source of the problems and to work towards resolving them. Lastly, the Health Code of Ethics applies to Bronx program in the sense that they strive towards professional preparation (NCHEC, 2008). The code asserts that learners should be accorded quality education that is beneficial to the public. On the other hand, Bronx program also strives to ensure that health educators are given training that enables them to administer culturally competent health care. For instance, Bronx program is advocating for doctors and nurses to be trained in other languages spoken to help in administering treatments to patients who cannot speak English.
Health behaviors of individuals are normally affected by multiple levels of influence. These levels of influence for health related conditions and behaviors are five in number. They include; individual or intrapersonal factors, interpersonal factors, organizational or institutional factors, community factors, and public policy factors (National Institutes of Health, 2005). Intrapersonal factors refer to the individual features that influence one’s behavior such as, attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and personality traits. The article on Bronx program showed that some people could not advocate for appropriate health care since they did not know what care they needed. These people could not do ask for appropriate health care, may be because they were ignorant of entails quality education. Secondly, interpersonal factors refer to the interpersonal processes and primary groups such as peers, friends, and families that provide an individual with role definition, social identity and support. Bronx program itself is formed by a coalition of groups that strive to educate the public on the significance of an efficient health care (Calman, 2005).
Thirdly, institutional factors refer to the regulations, rules and policies that can promote or hinder acclaimed behaviors. This level of influence has not been discussed in details, in the Bronx program. Fourth, community factors refer to the social norms and standards that formally or informally exist among groups, individuals and organizations (National Institutes of Health, 2005). The Bronx program entails several groups and organizations that have officially come together to address the ethnic and race issue in Bronx health care. The organizations and faith based groups educate the masses on the importance of heath care and obtaining quality health care. They are working hand in hand to ensure that the marginalized groups receive quality health care. Lastly, public policy refers to the state and federal policies that support or regulate healthy actions for preventing, early detection, controlling, and managing of diseases. The Bronx program is working to ensure that the government provides sufficient funds to help improve the health care situation in Bronx. Additionally, the program is tirelessly working to ensure that the funds provided by the government are accounted for; thus, to benefiting those in need. Lastly, Bronx program is advocating for laws that promote diversity in the health care workforce (Calman, 2005). It is pushing the federal and state governments to use increase their funding and hasten the accreditation process. This will result to an increase the number of minority medical school graduates.
In conclusion, this assignment has improved my proficiency in the Health Education areas of responsibility. Precisely, one’s responsibility to the public has been given lots of emphasis. I now understand the significance of educating the public to promote, maintain and improve health care. Additionally, I understand the need to consider and give priority to health care issues whenever there is a conflict of interest (NCHEC, 2008).

References
Calman, C. (2005). Making Health Equality A Reality: The Bronx Takes Action. Health Affairs,
24(2), 491-498. Retrieved Oct 15, 2012 from http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/24/2/491
NCHEC (2008). Code of Ethics for the Health Education Profession. Retrieved Oct 15, 2012 from http://www.nchec.org/credentialing/ethics/
National Institutes of Health (2005). Theory at a Glance: A Guide for Health Promotion
Practice. Retrieved Oct 15, 2012 from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/theory.pdf

References: Calman, C. (2005). Making Health Equality A Reality: The Bronx Takes Action. Health Affairs, 24(2), 491-498. Retrieved Oct 15, 2012 from http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/24/2/491 NCHEC (2008). Code of Ethics for the Health Education Profession. Retrieved Oct 15, 2012 from http://www.nchec.org/credentialing/ethics/ National Institutes of Health (2005). Theory at a Glance: A Guide for Health Promotion Practice. Retrieved Oct 15, 2012 from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/cancerlibrary/theory.pdf