Nursing Intervention to Encourage Healthy Eating Habits among Teenagers - Term Paper Example

?Nursing intervention to Encourage Healthy Eating Habits Among Teenagers Background: Nursing intervention establishes the means and ways for serving the patients in a more appropriate and fruitful manner. Nursing intervention, as the name demonstrates, is done by nurses or the people who are or have been a part of the services provided to patients. In many countries, nursing community and the professional nursing organizations have developed professional setups and standard policies to render services to several nursing communities. This helps them provide high level care to their patients. The objective of the establishment of these standard policies for nursing services is to ensure comfort and health of their patients. There are four steps in the development of nursing intervention, keeping in mind the encouragement of healthy habits among teenagers: Assessing: In this step, the nurse will have to assess the problem or the area where they have to start from. Here, the nursing intervention is to develop healthy eating habits among teenagers. So the nurse will have to assess and analyze those areas from where the research can be started. The targeted audience – teenagers – can be made a part of the study for the encouragement of healthy eating habits among them. Formulating an Intervention: After assessment of the area, the process leads to the second step – formulation of the intervention. In this step, observing the eating habits of the target audience will take place. The nurse will have to formulate a plan for how to intrude in the social life of the teenagers, make them recognize their unhealthy eating habits, and convince them to adopt a healthy diet. Even though junk food has its charms, according to a research conducted by the American Society for Clinical Nutrition (2003), the results showed that teenagers who consumed a higher amount of beverages than teens who did not were more prone to having a high blood pressure. It has also been claimed that too much intake of junk food can cause depression among teenagers (Tomer, 2011). Doctors and nutrition consultants strictly inhibit the regular intake of junk food, not only for teenagers but for everyone. A recent study published in Public Health Nutrition (Sanchez-Villegas et al., 2012) showed that teens who consume fast food are 51 percent more likely to develop depression than teens who consume less or no fast food at all. Enlightening the teens of today with the harms of fast food consumption and trying to develop reluctance in them for such might appear as the most challenging aspect of formulating an intervention. Implementing: The third step in nursing intervention is to implement the prepared set of plans. The step of implementation will include all the chosen subjects – teenagers – from the nurse on whom the formulation was attempted. In implementation, the results drawn from the research done can be shown to the subjects and any other people related to the subject. The priority viewers of the result will be the guardians or parents of the teens who, after showing the results, will be advised to decrease or condemn the fast food consumption in their child. Showing the results to the subjects and the harms caused by them might prove helpful, too, if they are willing to accept the flaws in their diet. Interviewing of relatives can also prove to be helpful in the deduction of results for the research being conducted. Evaluating: Upon reaching the end of the research, the nurse now has to evaluate the plan they implemented for intrusion and calculate the results obtained in a scale of positive to negative. The evaluation may take place by interviewing the teenager subjects and asking them for their feedback. The same can be done to everyone in the subject’s social circle to know if the subject’s eating habits are considered beneficial for them or not. The interviews and feedback hold an important part in the step of evaluation because they will prove helpful for the researchers in their deducing of results. From the evaluated conclusion, the research personnel might be able to gain an extra hand in trying to convince teenagers in developing healthy eating habits. Analysis of the collected data is a significant part for the display of results. For this purpose, researchers and – in this case – nurses will have to decide on the type of data that is going to be more useful and is expected to give better output. The types of data can be: Qualitative Quantitative For determining the type of data collected, nurses will have to adopt the sampling techniques, i.e. stratification, probability, and non-probability. To access the population for the conduction of study, different techniques should be considered. Some of them are convenience, snow ball and selection. After the collection of the data, the nurses should analyze the information obtained. Quantitative data have measurable aspect in them so SPSS technique is one of the means to analyze such data. On the other hand, if the data are qualitative with no quantifiable aspect in them, and open comments are there to be realized, then analysis techniques are much different. Categorical analysis is the most convenient and preferable method for qualitative analysis. Review: Developing healthy eating habits in the adults of today is not an easy task. Media has also contributed to promoting junk food among teenagers (Shilstone, 2009). Adolescence is the time period of rapid growth and change, bridging the complex transformation from childhood to adulthood. This time duration brings along with it making plans for their futures, and enables them to adopt healthy behavior by giving them the opportunity in response to the risks they might face in their plans. A study was conducted by Yin Wu (2006), in which attitudes of adults towards their diet were observed and studied. He surveyed the middle school students and conducted research on the basis of genders; the results showed that males are more likely to take unhealthy food in their diet while females are reluctant in their intake of junk food on a regular basis and were conscious about their weight and tried to lose their weight with the continuance of healthy diet in their meal routine. The biggest advantage young generation has is that they can get fast food in no time as today’s life is all about luxury. They can walk in, order the food and enjoy the taste without waiting on the table (Keller, 2008). Another pro they have is that they can select any size of the meal which suits their appetite better and whatever suits their taste better. At the end of a hard working day, when a person needs to relax and does not want to bother themselves for cooking, they prefer to get either a delivery of junk food or get it themselves (Smith, 2012). The government of any nation and health professionals in any state are directly influenced by the health of their people. Positive health effects are one of the major factors that influence both of the communities (governments and health professionals). On behalf of the Food Standard Agencies, the countries’ governments established organizations which are used for conducting surveys and research studies related to health of their people and their health habits. They also keep trying to promote and develop healthy diet among them. They review critically the factors that influence food choices, try to identify effective mechanisms and highlight existing gaps based on the evidence obtained after the research conduction (Buttriss, Stanner, McKevith, & Nugent, 2004). The social norms and cultural values also affect and have impacts on the food consumption of the local people as well. For example, Eastern world has oily and spicy dishes for their cuisine; the course of meal is taken thrice in a day while the Western world has dry, instantly cooked, readymade meals in their cuisine. Though the West has introduced junk food, for example, burgers, French fries and other fatty and unhealthy food, the Asians have shown a remarkable interest towards this culture of food and tremendously increased their junk diet and adopted this culture in no time. This culture of food has dramatically destroyed the lives of adults and increased their food consumption. Carbohydrates intake and cholesterol level is also much greater than before. Information campaigns can be conducted for the promotion of healthy diet; an increased number of physical activities in a person’s life and managing of transportation can be made a part of the policy formation for development of a healthy diet. What an adult consumes for their dinner has very little impact and effect on their overall health. The same goes for the food which is taken as breakfast. That food consumed is digested in the activities and physical movements and has contribution to the performance of these tasks (Verplanken & Wood, 2006). But food consumption of all day and the amount of food consumed collectively has a significant impact on an adult’s life and health (Harris et al., 1987). If this behavior is repeated every day, it may end up leaving significant, cumulative impacts on medical, social and economic outcomes of the consumer. These consequences are experienced by both adult consumers and society as a whole. Research Design: For the implementation and conducting of a nursing intervention, it is preferred to start with collecting the primary data. Primary data are to get live comments and views about your project by your selected concerned subjects. Here, adults for this study, through interviews, questionnaires, surveys etc., will be the source of collecting primary data. As the research study is the development of nursing interventions by encouraging healthy diet habits among the adults society, we have to keep in mind their cultural, social, educational, and economical factors. For this research, as a nurse, 25 adults were selected from the two sectors of a city. The sample size was restricted to 20-30 adults. For this purpose the time period of 2 months was assumed. Sample population consisted of 15 girls, as they are more weight conscious, and 10 boys with heavier weights. They were going to be offered healthy fresh diet for 6 weeks and then were going to be evaluated on their health response. In the meantime, they were not allowed to take any kind of oily, fatty, extra sweet or junk food. They were going to be tested medically before the healthy food training test program, after 6 weeks of the training and then after the end of the training program. The remaining 3 weeks were going to be teenagers’ week and in those days they were allowed for the consumption of food according to their own taste. It was kept in mind to use the weighing machine regularly to check the weights of the adults at least twice a week. Parents, friends, relatives and any other concerned people were allowed to contact with the subjects. They were also considered a participant of the whole training program as they were going to point out and give the selected segment the evidence of change if occurring as a result of the healthy diet they were consuming. After the period of 6 weeks, if the subjects ate any unhealthy food or junk food, in the next time duration of 3 weeks, and any flaw or negative impact was observed, it was then supposed to be demonstrated by the second party of participants. Types of Data: As the data and results are collected on the basis of surveys and interviews, they will be called qualitative in nature. They include zero amounts of quantitative aspects in them. In this research the questionnaires or interviews of closed ended and specific questions have been used to avoid any countable, measurable and quantifiable aspect in it. Analysis and Conclusion: After the healthy diet program conducting, all the participants were interviewed and the results were very favorable. Yet they believe, especially the boys, that junk food can be eaten once in two weeks or twice in a month just for the sake of changing their monotonous taste of house food. They still preferred junk food because it is very easy to get, without taking much time, and holds a lot more taste. But they also agreed on the fact that healthy food ensures a longer life and healthy lifestyle. Advantages of selecting: Deciding on the type of data and selection of sample size in anticipation can prove to give a hand in the achievement of better results. Considerate definition of sample size helps decide on the handling of population and collecting the relevant data from them. Sample size order can come with the choice of whether to go for the probability or non-probability sampling. The sampling techniques also play a very significant role in the deduction of results. Convenience, snow ball, stratification, etc. can be chosen to enhance the quality of research. The both modes of data collection – qualitative and quantitative ones – are beneficial and add value to the study. Qualitative data include all the open ended, justified comments in them. They consist of long discussions which have to be analyzed by employing different techniques and methods. In this type of data collection, there is no need and existence of quantifiable material. There is also no role of charts, graphs, numbers, calculation variables, dependent/independent variables and intervening variables. There might be some dependent or independent variables involved, from which significance of relationship is analyzed by the qualitative interviews or questionnaires. Quantitative data have their own advantage of displaying the results of the data. In this type of data collection, the questionnaires, interviews or surveys have closed ended questions and consist of specific answers. Those answers can be calculated, quantified, and presented in charts and/or graphs for the better display of results analyzed. This type of data is also able to better explain the relationship significance among the variables drawn. References Buttriss, J., Stanner, S., McKevith, B., & Nugent, A.P. (2004, November 12). Successful ways to modify food choice: Lessons from the literature. Harris, M., Ross, E. B., & Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. (1987). Food and evolution: Toward a theory of human food habits. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Heymsfield, S.B., Keller, K.L., & St-Onge, M.-P. (2003). Changes in childhood food consumption patterns: A cause for concern in light of increasing body weights. American Society for Clinical Nutrition. Tomer, J. (2011, July). What causes obesity? And why has it grown so much? Challenge, M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 54(4), 22-49. Keller, K. (2008) Encyclopedia of obesity, 1, 262. Los Angeles: SAGE. Sanchez-Villegas, A., Toledo, E., de Irala, J., Ruiz-Canela, M., Pla-Vidal, J., & Martinez-Gonzalez, M.A. (2012). Fast food and commercial baked goods consumption and the risk of depression. Public Health Nutrition, 15, 424-432. Shilstone, M. (2009). Mackie Shilstone's body plan for kids: Strategies for creating a team-winning effort. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications. Smith, A. F. (2012). Fast food and junk food: An encyclopedia of what we love to eat (p. 270). Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood. Wu, T.-Y. (2006, February). Gender differences in health risk behaviors and physical activity among middle school students. The Journal of School Nursing, 22. Verplanken, B., & Wood, W. (2006). Interventions to break and create consumer habits. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing. Read More