Nursing Theory: Health Promotion on Diabetes Prevention in Older Patients - Essay Example

"Nursing Theory: Health Promotion on Diabetes Prevention in Older Patients" is a wonderful example of a paper on diabetes mellitus.
According to the theory of vulnerability, weaknesses creates some vulnerability in humans. According to Nickitas, the vulnerability has affected the different kinds and approaches of treatments that have been offered by different hospitals in the future (Nickitas, Middaugh, & Aries, 2010). The kind of preventive activities carried out and the preventive information given to different patients has changed according to their level of exposure to risks causing or that may cause diabetes. The older population are believed to be the most highly vulnerable due to their age. This paper will look into how vulnerability has affected health promotional activities that are aimed at the reduction of diabetes cases among older patients.

Health Promotion Activities to Prevent Diabetes

Vulnerability in human beings is brought about by weaknesses that, in most cases are beyond the control of humans. These results in situations where humans experience changed social behaviours as a result of changing emotions. According to Medicinenet.com, there is a higher number of older patients who end up in emergency wards due to insulin-related cases, than patients in other age groups (Gordon, 2015). This clearly indicates the vulnerability levels of older diabetic patients.

The different kinds of health promotion activities that are used for elderly diabetic patients involve managing and controlling any illness that could complicate diabetes case, using preventive measures and health improvement for patients with diabetes. All these activities have to consider the social environment and the patients’ feelings towards the activities. These two are largely determined by the patients’ vulnerability. Since the patients’ vulnerability increases with age, the health promotion activities employed for diabetic patients should be tailored in a way that reduces their weaknesses thus reducing their levels of vulnerability to effects of suffering from the disease.

Another health promotion activity is the creation of awareness of diabetes to the populations. Awareness sessions create knowledge on the disease and its effects on older patients. Such patients are then able to know the best methods of managing and controlling the disease so as to reduce their vulnerability to further effects of diabetes. Assistance in identifying risk factors especially among the older diabetes patients is a great step towards reducing vulnerability levels.

Introduction of emotional support programs would also be a step towards reducing vulnerability in diabetic patients. Weaknesses caused by this disease mostly come along with effects on the emotional health of the patients. This is another aspect of vulnerability that can be exploited by health promotion programs to provide support to diabetic patients. Older patients are easily affected emotionally by their health status and thus more emotional support is needed to ensure the effectiveness of such programs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, any successful health promotion activity has to focus on the key underlying issues. Older diabetic patients are most vulnerable due to weaknesses that come in as effects of the disease. Thus, efforts aimed at controlling the disease should be focussed on how to eliminate the feeling of being vulnerable among the patients as well as ways to give the patients both emotional and physical strength.