Running head: HEALTH PROMOTION
Health Promotion: Educating The Nurse and The Public
Kurt Luedtke
Grand Canyon University
Family Centered Health Promotion
NRS-429V
Vicki Denson
Health Promotion
The Healthy People 2010 report designates nursing as one of the prime proponents of health promotion. Nurses are the largest single group of health care providers in the United States with an estimated 2.6 million registered nurses practicing (ANA) throughout the country. As the largest field of health care providers nurses will have a huge affect on health promotion and health education through community, hospital and legislative based activity. More importantly, ...view middle of the document...
Additionally, health promotion will help achieve the goals of Healthy People 2020 by prevention of chronic disease, improving social and physical environments; decrease health inequities in lower socioeconomic groups, increase healthy behavior and improve overall quality of life.
In order to meet the Healthy People 2020 mission statement nursing education will need to better incorporate Health Promotion into the nursing curriculum. According to Kathleen Ann Halcomb in her 2010 doctoral dissertation she examines the education of nurses and the conflicting philosophy between the National League for Nursing (NLN) and the National League of Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). She states, “unlike the NLN, the AACN includes an essential about health promotion” (Halcomb, pg.6). Fortunately, the National Council of States Boards of Nursing, which administers the NCLEX exam, acknowledged the significance of the AACN position and included health promotion questions in the NCLEX exam as of April 2010. With inclusion of health promotion on the NCLEX examination, and as an essential for nursing curriculum according the AACN, there is an understanding that health promotion is a core component of the nursing profession (Halcomb, pg. 7).
Nursing education is a critical component of health promotion as health care changes from an emphasis on acute care to an emphasis on preventive health care. Health care has been in the past primarily focused on disease prevention; however, the new paradigm will be the prevention of chronic diseases that are in a large part preventable or manageable through three levels of health promotion including Primary, Secondary and Tertiary prevention. As nurses become more familiar with the concept of health promotion they will become adept at practicing nursing at the community level verses the acute level of care
Primary prevention targets specific health problems such as diabetes. Medication management, exercise and nutrition programs are examples of primary prevention. The idea is early assessment and education to prevent disease and is applied to health individuals or groups. This goal requires nurses to relinquish the role of expert and become partners with their populations of practice (Scott, 2011 pg. 17). Secondary prevention is the early identification that focuses on rapid intervention of disease to prevent or alleviate morbidity. Secondary prevention is where the nurse can have the greatest impact on health promotion in that it involves early recognition of diseases such as diabetes though testing of individuals in high-risk populations and providing early interventions that prevent or delay...