Health Promotion In The Healthcare System
Review of Literature
December 1, 2013
Health promotion is an important part in the healthcare system. Health promotion involves keeping the public aware of current health issues that are of concern and are at a high. Health promotion does involve education but that is just the beginning to what we are trying to achieve. McManus (2013) defines health promotion as “the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health”. Not only are we trying to educate people but we ultimately want to get people to want to change and be aware of their health. Nearly forty percent of all deaths in the United States are due to behavioral causes and this is why health promotion is so important …show more content…
(Olsen, 2010). So what exactly happens during the process of health promotion? There are four categories that that involve health promotion and they are focus, strategies, impact, and outcomes. The focus starts with groups, populations, or individuals. These are the people we want to educate. Next the focus is on the strategies that are used to get the topic across that is trying to be presented, whether it is educational, motivational, technological etc. After the strategies have been implemented the impact of the strategies is evaluated. Have the individuals made behavioral and environmental adaption’s to meet this goal? Lastly, what is the outcome? After all this is what all healthcare professionals are focused on. The purpose of health promotion in the nursing practice is better health of patients and better quality of life but there are specific principles that are aimed for when health promotion is being implemented. There is always an end goal because without goals what is the purpose of doing anything? These five principles include, building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services (McManus, 2013). All these lead back to the definition of health promotion; to enable people to increase control over their lives and to improve their health. Teaching and education is essential but it sometimes takes more to motivate some individuals to take action and sadly it sometimes takes a near death experience before realizing they need to take charge of their life and start living a healthy lifestyle. That is the purpose of health promotion in nursing. To reach out to these individuals before it reaches that point of no return. Nursing roles are evolving and changing every single day.
In some way something is constantly changing or we have gathered new information or data that results in better patient outcomes. Right now nurse’s main focus is on the ill that are in need of care. “Imagine a world where nurses focus on promoting health rather than managing illness and where success is measured in terms of healthy populations rather than disease states” (At Work, 2006). Although this is taught throughout our nursing education and is a big role in our nursing career it is sadly not the focus of many nurses care. New nursing models are starting to focus more on keeping the population healthy rather than getting caught up in managing diseases and treating illnesses leaving hardly any time for primary prevention. Like what was said before we need to focus on fixing the core of the problem rather than individually treating each case that arises. We have endless resources at our fingertips in this day and age and “this energy can be channeled into the development of health promotion strategies that nurses can use with people in all settings to create a healthier tomorrow” (At Work, …show more content…
2006). Areas of implementation during health promotion in nursing involve several questions that need to be answered to insure success in the implementation process. These questions include:
What do you want to achieve?
Why do you want to achieve it?
How will you achieve it?
Who is the initiative aimed at?
How will it happen?
Where will it happen?
When will it happen?
When will it stop?
How will you know you have achieved what you wanted? (McManus, 2013)
Although these seem repetitive and simple these are a very important and essential component in the implementation of healthcare promotion. These should not be improvised otherwise the risk of not effectively promoting the strategies you have aimed to implement and in the end not achieving the desired outcome. The whole purpose that surrounds health prevention in healthcare is to stop the problem at the source to stop what is causing the problem so that more individuals are not affected. This is easier than trying to save one person at a time. Healthcare groups prevention into three categories which are primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. In primary prevention the goal is to protect health people from developing disease such as education about good nutrition, regular exercise, or tobacco use. Secondary focuses on interventions after an illness has already been diagnosed. The purpose of this stage is to slow down the progression of the disease process. An example of this would be to instruct one of your patients to take a low dose aspirin to prevent another heart attack/stroke. Secondary prevention is so important in these types of disease because “the outcomes for those who have a recurrent stroke are generally worse than after a first stroke, with patients likely to experience increased disability and higher healthcare costs over the longer term” (Dregan, 2012). Lastly, tertiary focuses on helping people manage their chronic diseases once they have been diagnosed such as diabetes, cancer, pain etc. Interventions in this step are focused on quality of life and preventing further deterioration of the body. “For many health problems, a combination of primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions are needed to achieve a meaningful degree of prevention and protection” (Chiverton, 2009).
References
At Work (2006).
Too Much Treatment, too early after whiplash injury delays recovery. 43. Retrieved from http://www.iwh.on.ca/system/files/at-work/at_work_43.pdf
Chiverton, P. A., Votava, K. C., & Tortoretti, D. M. (2009). The future role of nursing in health promotion. American Journal Of Health Promotion, 18(2), 192-194.
Dregan, A., van Staa, T., McDermott, L., McCann, G., Ashworth, M., Charlton, J., & ... Gulliford, M. (2012). Cluster randomized trial in the general practice research database: 2. Secondary prevention after first stroke (eCRT study): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 13181. doi:10.1186/1745-6215-13-181
McManus, A. (2013). Health promotion innovation in primary health care. Australasian Medical Journal, 6(1), 15-18. doi:10.4066/AMJ.2013.1578
Olsen, L., Saunders, R., Yong, P. L., National Academies Press, (. (U.S.), & Institute of Medicine, (U.S.). (2010). The Healthcare Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes: Workshop Series Summary. Washington, D.C.: National Academies
Press.
December 1, 2013
Health promotion is an important part in the healthcare system. Health promotion involves keeping the public aware of current health issues that are of concern and are at a high. Health promotion does involve education but that is just the beginning to what we are trying to achieve. McManus (2013) defines health promotion as “the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health”. Not only are we trying to educate people but we ultimately want to get people to want to change and be aware of their health. Nearly forty percent of all deaths in the United States are due to behavioral causes and this is why health promotion is so important …show more content…
(Olsen, 2010). So what exactly happens during the process of health promotion? There are four categories that that involve health promotion and they are focus, strategies, impact, and outcomes. The focus starts with groups, populations, or individuals. These are the people we want to educate. Next the focus is on the strategies that are used to get the topic across that is trying to be presented, whether it is educational, motivational, technological etc. After the strategies have been implemented the impact of the strategies is evaluated. Have the individuals made behavioral and environmental adaption’s to meet this goal? Lastly, what is the outcome? After all this is what all healthcare professionals are focused on. The purpose of health promotion in the nursing practice is better health of patients and better quality of life but there are specific principles that are aimed for when health promotion is being implemented. There is always an end goal because without goals what is the purpose of doing anything? These five principles include, building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services (McManus, 2013). All these lead back to the definition of health promotion; to enable people to increase control over their lives and to improve their health. Teaching and education is essential but it sometimes takes more to motivate some individuals to take action and sadly it sometimes takes a near death experience before realizing they need to take charge of their life and start living a healthy lifestyle. That is the purpose of health promotion in nursing. To reach out to these individuals before it reaches that point of no return. Nursing roles are evolving and changing every single day.
In some way something is constantly changing or we have gathered new information or data that results in better patient outcomes. Right now nurse’s main focus is on the ill that are in need of care. “Imagine a world where nurses focus on promoting health rather than managing illness and where success is measured in terms of healthy populations rather than disease states” (At Work, 2006). Although this is taught throughout our nursing education and is a big role in our nursing career it is sadly not the focus of many nurses care. New nursing models are starting to focus more on keeping the population healthy rather than getting caught up in managing diseases and treating illnesses leaving hardly any time for primary prevention. Like what was said before we need to focus on fixing the core of the problem rather than individually treating each case that arises. We have endless resources at our fingertips in this day and age and “this energy can be channeled into the development of health promotion strategies that nurses can use with people in all settings to create a healthier tomorrow” (At Work, …show more content…
2006). Areas of implementation during health promotion in nursing involve several questions that need to be answered to insure success in the implementation process. These questions include:
What do you want to achieve?
Why do you want to achieve it?
How will you achieve it?
Who is the initiative aimed at?
How will it happen?
Where will it happen?
When will it happen?
When will it stop?
How will you know you have achieved what you wanted? (McManus, 2013)
Although these seem repetitive and simple these are a very important and essential component in the implementation of healthcare promotion. These should not be improvised otherwise the risk of not effectively promoting the strategies you have aimed to implement and in the end not achieving the desired outcome. The whole purpose that surrounds health prevention in healthcare is to stop the problem at the source to stop what is causing the problem so that more individuals are not affected. This is easier than trying to save one person at a time. Healthcare groups prevention into three categories which are primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. In primary prevention the goal is to protect health people from developing disease such as education about good nutrition, regular exercise, or tobacco use. Secondary focuses on interventions after an illness has already been diagnosed. The purpose of this stage is to slow down the progression of the disease process. An example of this would be to instruct one of your patients to take a low dose aspirin to prevent another heart attack/stroke. Secondary prevention is so important in these types of disease because “the outcomes for those who have a recurrent stroke are generally worse than after a first stroke, with patients likely to experience increased disability and higher healthcare costs over the longer term” (Dregan, 2012). Lastly, tertiary focuses on helping people manage their chronic diseases once they have been diagnosed such as diabetes, cancer, pain etc. Interventions in this step are focused on quality of life and preventing further deterioration of the body. “For many health problems, a combination of primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions are needed to achieve a meaningful degree of prevention and protection” (Chiverton, 2009).
References
At Work (2006).
Too Much Treatment, too early after whiplash injury delays recovery. 43. Retrieved from http://www.iwh.on.ca/system/files/at-work/at_work_43.pdf
Chiverton, P. A., Votava, K. C., & Tortoretti, D. M. (2009). The future role of nursing in health promotion. American Journal Of Health Promotion, 18(2), 192-194.
Dregan, A., van Staa, T., McDermott, L., McCann, G., Ashworth, M., Charlton, J., & ... Gulliford, M. (2012). Cluster randomized trial in the general practice research database: 2. Secondary prevention after first stroke (eCRT study): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 13181. doi:10.1186/1745-6215-13-181
McManus, A. (2013). Health promotion innovation in primary health care. Australasian Medical Journal, 6(1), 15-18. doi:10.4066/AMJ.2013.1578
Olsen, L., Saunders, R., Yong, P. L., National Academies Press, (. (U.S.), & Institute of Medicine, (U.S.). (2010). The Healthcare Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes: Workshop Series Summary. Washington, D.C.: National Academies
Press.