Public Health: Promoting Health and Wellbeing - Essay Example

Promoting Health and Wellbeing: Reducing Smoking Discuss how you can promote healthy lifestyles to a patient or group of patients within your field of practice. Health Promotion is a substantial element of our society which enables health professionals to guide and motivate general public towards a better and healthy life style. In the contemporary world health issues are immensely increasing due to the excessive use of drugs and adverse environmental impacts such as climate change and global warming. This calls for an immediate action from the medical professionals and the government authorities to raise awareness about the common health problems in addition to introducing proper health promotion strategies and programs. In this regard if we look into the past then there are substantial programs available which had a prime focus over the establishment of a healthy society. Health Promotion has been a part of our lives since forever although it got global recognition in 1986 when the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion was developed. This charter had some key objectives which are now acting as the main goals of almost all the health promotion programs and strategies. These include (THE EVIDENCE OF HEALTH PROMOTION EFFECTIVENESS, 2000): Edifice a comprehensive and affective Public health policy Create a supportive environment for the implementation of the policy Strengthen the community action system Develop the personal skills of patients and medical professionals both Reorient the health services and the delivery pathways This paper aims to discuss the health promotion with reference to public health. Nurses play a vital role in the overall promotion of public health and therefore it is significant to increase their skills and experience in this field. Moreover, this paper shall be describing the health promotion strategies related to smoking considering an individual patient’s case study. Public health and its importance Public health refers to the overall healthy wellbeing of a population under consideration. This term has gained enough recognition in the 21st century which has actually compelled the government authorities to take a serious note in this regard. In broader terms, public health does not only focuses over the individual health needs rather it also has a deep consideration over the socio-economic and physical environment of a person. The goals and objectives of public health are achieved by a mutual co-operation of social workers, government authorities and medical professionals. It is largely divided into two main groups (JUDY ORME, 2007): Actions which are taken in order to improve the public health through awareness programs, strategies and different campaigns which aim to target a particular group affected by a particular health issue. Information and other resources which are intensely required to carry out all the actions related to public health. Public health is an important element of our society due to following reasons (THEODORE H. TULCHINSKY, 2009): Improving the health of a society or an individual requires both direct and indirect approaches which are primarily gathered in the Public health policy subsequently making the process of implementation significantly easier and more effective. Public health focuses over the social, economic, environmental, medical and technological factors affecting an individual’s health while giving substantial solutions based on different approaches. It is also responsible to set measureable targets for the government’s health policies which are beneficial in addressing health needs of a community while extending maximum health care services to them. Public health ensures the active involvement of medical professionals in all health care programs while presenting different skill development strategies for them. Role of nurse in public health Research indicates that nurses have always been an essential part of public health and overall health promotion strategies. They play the most crucial role in public health since they are responsible to bridge the gap between doctors and patients. Their responsibility is significantly challenging as they need to address different health issues simultaneously and also because they need to identify the sources of information. Following are the most prominent roles played by a nurse in regard to public health (JANICE E. HITCHCOCK et al., 2003): They increase health awareness on the individual and community level. They extend maximum services to patients both physically and emotionally. They perform the role of client advocacy while formulating effective health care strategies for an individual patient or a group of patients. They are responsible to integrate health policies and practices. In addition to this they have an active involvement in all the health promotion and health education programs, health screening and awareness campaigns related to some of the developing diseases (DIANE DEBELL et al., 1998). Sources of information The health related needs of an individual or community are identified on the bases of past experience and specialized skills which are primarily developed at the nursing schools. In addition to this other significant sources of information which are widely used by nurses to recognize the health need of their clients include (JENNIE NAIDOO, 2009): Health promotion theories related to public health available in text books and research articles. Government policies and practices to extend health care services. Use of different case studies. Updated information and guidelines presented by different researchers and medical professionals. Concepts of health care learned during the training period. Priority and target audience My priority is ‘Reducing Smoking’ and the target audience includes all the individuals having intense smoking habit while they have an urge to quit it. Smoking refers to continuous use of tobacco in the form of cigarettes (SMOKING, 2013). Here my aim is to present significant health care policies in addition to formulating different public health strategies with the help of past data and government health policies. Since my focus is over reducing individual smoking therefore I will be taking an account of a case study in order to substantiate my discussion. My primary target audience is Jack and people who have similar characteristics as him. He is a 70 years old male living in England with his wife. He has been retired years back and now undergoing severe heart diseases because he has been smoking around 20 cigarettes daily from the age of 30. Due to extensive medical issues and after experiencing a bypass he has been motivated to give up smoking and now he is asking for nurses’ consultancy and help in this regard (KEANE. M. et al., 2011). Significance of Reducing Smoking Research indicates that smoking is affected by various factors. It has its roots in the environmental and social factors influencing an individual’s mentality and overall habits. Smoking is something which has an equal but indirect affect over the non-smokers consequently leading to severe healthcare issues. This indicates that policies and healthcare initiatives about reducing smoking are essentially needed (AMANDA SANDFORD, 2008). Additionally in order to control young death rate it is important to reduce smoking since use of tobacco is increasing among youngsters which has subsequently increased their death rate (LEVY D.T. et al., 2007). Health Holistically Reducing smoking will have significant impacts over the long term sustenance of societies and individuals. It will give rise to holistically healthy people while ensuring that individuals are motivated enough to forgo the fatal habit. The basic principles of holistic health revolve around the zones which directly or indirectly affect an individual’s health (SHIRLEY AMY, 2011). Following are the core features of holistic health which will further explain the importance of addressing this issue (SUZAN WALTER, 1999): Physical: the physical health of an individual gets drastically affected due to smoking. Therefore reduced smoking will have better health effects. For instance, increase in weight, reduced skin problems, etc (JOHN DOUGLAS SKATUN, 2010). Mental: smoking is considered a way of mental relaxation however, reality is contrary to it. Once a person will forgo this habit he will eventual develop better intellect leading towards better mental health (KARL ERIK LUND, 2013). Emotional: emotions are one of the factors which actually affect an individual’s productivity and performance. Smokers are usually short tempered and lack emotional control therefore once they will reduce smoking then ultimately in the long term they would be able to have increased emotional intelligence (KATHY HAMILTON et al., 2010). Social: smokers prefer isolation instead of socializing which increases their mental, emotional and physical health issues. Reduced smoking will consequently help them in acquiring better social status and improved health (JING SUN et al., 2012). These evidences substantiates that the issue of smoking requires to be addressed by the medical professionals with an active involvements of government authorities. In addition to this the socio-economic factors will also affect the choice of smoking or forgoing smoking that my client will make. For instance, smoking incurs a major part of Jack’s income which eventually influences his social status and economic conditions since he has been spending a considerable amount over smoking. Promotion of Healthy Life Style Choices There are various techniques and approaches available for the promotion of healthy life style choices including educational, medical, behavioral change, social change and empowerment (ED. MAHFOUZ, 2002). In case of Jack I will be using the behavioral change approach. This approach is largely dependent upon facilitating patients to forgo an unhealthy habit. Nurses are responsible to use distinctive techniques to achieve the desired objective (MARTIN FISHBEIN, et al., 2011). In case of Jack, Motivational Interviewing would be the best possible option since he has already shown interest in giving up smoking and now he only requires having medical support. Jack’s own interest in the matter will actually facilitate the overall procedure, however, the non-involvement of his family and his overall socio-economic status might create some hindrances. For instance, there is significant number of chain smokers in his extended social circle which is expected to change his desire to quit smoking in future. To deal with such situations he requires having motivational sessions on continuous basis. I shall be using the cycle of change presented by Prochaska and DiClemente. This model significantly explains all the steps which must be followed in order to achieve better health or to forgo an unhealthy habit such as smoking. It revolves around six stages starting from the very initial stage when Jack (in this case) had no intention of giving up smoking (pre-contemplation). Then he entered in to the second stage where he realized that now he must give up smoking so as to maintain proper healthy life style (contemplation). Subsequently he decided to take an action in this regard (determination) and then he asked nurses to facilitate him medically in order to quit smoking (action). Now he requires maintaining this change by completely giving up smoking (maintenance). Here I would be using the motivational interviewing to help my client maintain his action and subsequently acquiring the desired results. If, for instance, he has been unsuccessful in maintaining his action then he might enter into relapse i.e. continuation of smoking (ARTHUR FREEMAN, 2004). Since Jack is an adult patient therefore I have increased responsibilities towards him. I need to indulge his wife into the treatment procedure while indentifying the key variables which might prove beneficial in reducing his smoking habit. For this purpose I would have to look into his history. For instance, he developed the contemplation to reduce smoking after thoughtfully considering his physical and mental health. This indicates that in future also the poor description of his health would actually influence him to quit smoking forever. I would be using emotional tactics during the motivational interviewing sessions since Jack has an emotional personality and that would really help me in accomplishing this task. Furthermore I would require having exceptionally good communication skills to gain his trust and also to maintain patient’s confidentiality (SUDHANSHU RAMESH PATWARDHAN et al., 2013). Evaluation of the impact In Behavioral Change Approach it is slightly difficult to evaluate the overall impact of the intervention. Therefore I will have to examine changes in his behavior over a longer period of time, for instance 5-6 years or more. Evaluation would be more observation based and would require reliable data about the social and personal activities of Jack. Once the evaluation results are positive for a considerable time period only then the successful implementation of public health strategy can be verified (SELA SAR et al., 2013). References Amanda Sandford, (2008) Trends in smoking among adolescents and young adults in the United Kingdom: Implications for health education, Health Education: volume 108 page 23 - 236 Arthur Freeman (2004) Clinical applications of cognitive therapy, Springer, New York. Diane DeBell, Gil Everett, (1998) The changing role of school nursing within health education and health promotion, Health Education, volume 98, page 107 – 115 Ed Mahfouz (2002) The Three Es Approach to a Healthy Lifestyle, Virtual book worm Publishing, Janice E. Hitchcock, Phyllis E. 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Sudhanshu Ramesh Patwardhan, Marina Murphy, (2013) Survey of GPs’ understanding of tobacco and nicotine products, Drugs and Alcohol Today, volume 13, page 1020-1025. Suzan Walter (1999) The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Body-Mind Disciplines, The Rosen Publishing Group. The Evidence of Health Promotion Effectiveness (2000), International Union for Health Promotion and Education, London, viewed: 22nd April, 2013. Theodore H. Tulchinsky (2009) The new public health, Academic Press, London. Read More