What is the nurse’s most important tool when creating a health promotion plan for a client?

Índice Show

Does health promotion work?
What are the strategies for success?
What is VicHealth’s approach?
Key events and outcomes: Victorian government
Encouraging Healthiness and Disease Prevention
Influence and Education

Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. It moves beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a wide range of social and environmental interventions.

As a core function of public health, health promotion supports governments, communities and individuals to cope with and address health challenges. This is accomplished by building healthy public policies, creating supportive environments, and strengthening community action and personal skills.

The emphasis of health promotion in the Western Pacific Region is on:

Strengthening health promotion capacity (financing and infrastructure);
Promoting urban health (including healthy cities and health equity through Urban HEART);
Building other healthy settings (including schools and workplaces) and healthy islands; and
Developing health literacy

The Ottawa Charter is a clear statement of action for health promotion, widely used by the health promotion sector. The Ottawa Charter came out of the first International Conference on Health Promotion held in Ottawa, Canada, in November 1986. The conference aimed for action to achieve ‘Health for all’ by the year 2000 and beyond. The Charter gave health promotion a solid framework, and health promoters an identity.

Does health promotion work?

Research and case studies from around the world provide convincing evidence that health promotion is effective. Health promotion strategies can develop and change lifestyles, and have an impact on the social, economic and environmental conditions that determine health.

What are the strategies for success?

The five strategies set out in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion are essential for success:

build healthy public policy
create supportive environments
strengthen community action
develop personal skills
reorient health services.

What is VicHealth’s approach?

VicHealth’s approach is informed by international health promotion frameworks, in particular those led by the World Health Organization and encapsulated in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (WHO 1986), the Jakarta Declaration (WHO 1997) and the Rio Declaration (WHO 2012).

Our approach is based on the knowledge that health is influenced by myriad complex and inter-related factors.

These include:

individual behaviours and beliefs
family environments
community and work cultures
practices and policies
broader socioeconomic factors such as culture, legislation, the media and economics.

The last few years have been important for health promotion with attention focused on the prevention agenda by both the State and Commonwealth governments. This is in response to significant changes causing an increase in chronic disease.

These include both demographic changes (growth and ageing of the population) and changes to lifestyles. The increase in chronic disease is having, and will continue to have, an impact on our health care system and prevention is seen by all levels of government as key.

The key policies related to health promotion all acknowledge that:

other policies of government also impact on health – for example, planning, transport, environmental sustainability
partnerships will be needed across all levels of government, non-government organisations, the health sector, business and the community itself if change is to be successful.

Key events and outcomes: Victorian government

Victoria's 10-year mental health plan (December 2015)

This plan sets a long-term vision for improving mental health and wellbeing. It will guide investment and aims to provide better mental health outcomes for Victorians.

Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2015-2019 (September 2015)

The Victorian public health and wellbeing plan 2015-2019 outlines the government’s key priorities over the next four years to improve the health and wellbeing of all Victorians, particularly the most disadvantaged.

Victorian Health and Wellbeing Outcomes Framework 2012-2022 (August 2014)

The purpose of the State Government’s framework is to lay out a clear, coordinated agenda for the future of the entire Victorian health system. It covers the spectrum from primary, secondary and tertiary health services to health promotion. The framework is the basis for three supporting plans:

Koolin Balit: Victorian Government Strategic Directions for Aboriginal Health 2012-2022 (July 2013)

This framework provides an overview of the Victorian Government's plan to address Aboriginal health into the future.

Victorian Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (June 2009)

In June 2009, the Victorian Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) provided a response to the Victorian Auditor General’s 2007 review of Victorian health promotion activities. PAEC identified the following areas for improvement: health promotion funding, capacity-building, data, research, performance indicators, evaluation and social marketing.

Conventionally, health care systems were focused on the cure of disease instead of the prevention of disease. With today’s evolving health care changes, the shift toward effective prevention techniques is more important. The nurse’s role in preventative health care is to utilize evidence-based research and recommendations to improve the health of patients. Nurses are the catalysts for healthier lifestyles through encouragement and teaching, helping patients to potentially receive preventative services such as counseling, screenings, and precautionary procedures or medications. Nurses can impassion those to engage in healthy lifestyles through education, mentorship, and leadership.

Encouraging Healthiness and Disease Prevention

Nurses working in various venues have a great responsibility in preventative care and wellness. The backbone of the nursing profession has always been recognized as that of a caring profession and one that excels in disease prevention and health promotion. Nurses are strong advocates for patients because they navigate the health care system.

Nurses can work formally or informally as case managers. There are formal roles for nurses as case managers where the nurse's only role is to help patients and families navigate through the health care system. Informally, all nurses work with patients and families to make sure that they receive the holistic care that is needed for optimal outcomes. Nurses work as consultants in communities and organizations to define the health care needs of that population, promoting activities and community development for the citizens who live there. Nurses are most recognized as the primary caregivers of patients in various venues. They are the ones who provide the hands-on care.

One of the most critical roles that nurses have in health promotion and disease preventions is that of an educator. Nurses spend the most time with the patients and provide anticipatory guidance about immunizations, nutrition, dietary, medications, and safety. Nurses are consistently working to prevent illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and obstructive pulmonary disease; they do this through a variation of tactics that include education, risk factor prevention, and the monitoring of safety hazards either in the workplace, community, or home.

Nurses are best qualified to take on the job of health promoter due to their expertise. There are few health care occupations that have the high level of health education knowledge, skills, theory, and research to be able to focus on prevention because it is considered part of their professional development focus. Voluntary credentialing is available on a national level in the form of a certified health education specialist from the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. (NCHEC). Competencies include health education needs assessment, program planning, implementation and evaluation, research, service coordination, and health educational needs, concerns, and resource communication no matter where the service is provided, such as in schools, communities, and clinics.1 There are also specialties in occupational, environmental, and public health nursing.

Culturally different ethnic groups and subgroups often are particularly challenging and involve extensive persuasion for identification and change in the health behaviors of those individuals, families, groups, or communities. Cultural considerations are needed to help promote programs, and communication is essential in building a relationship of trust and mutual respect.

Cultural diversity requires a sensitivity and awareness that should be mirrored in the phases of planning, design, and implementation of programs and education. Educational programs in the workplace help with both common and unique situations that may occur in an occupational setting and provide resources for future occurrences that may come up. Nurses must ensure that barriers, such as misinterpretation from communication barriers and stereotyping from those who might be viewed as different, do not occur. Skills such as active listening, clarification, and reflection can help overcome and avoid some of these barriers.2

Influence and Education

Health promotion’s purpose is to positively influence the healthy behavior of people and societies as well as the living and working conditions that impact their health. Nurses are best able to perform health promotion tasks by enhancing the quality of life for all people through assessment of individual and community needs, education, identification of resources, and evaluation and implementation of programs to help reduce premature deaths and reduce costs in both the financial and human terms for all entities.

Colorado Technical University offers online nursing degree programs including RN-to-BSN, Master of Science in Nursing, and Doctor of Nursing Practice. Learn more about CTU’s nursing degrees.

For important information about the educational debt, earnings, and completion rates of students who attended this program, go to www.coloradotech.edu/disclosures. CTU cannot guarantee employment or salary. Not all programs are available to residents of all states.
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