Health Promotion Methods in Nursing - Essay Example

Health Promotion in Nursing Introduction Nursing as a branch under the wider health care context is man dwith the betterment and sustenance of human living. As such, health promotion is a key element advocated for in nursing wherein health promotion can be defined as the process of increasing people’s control over their health, thereby improving it. Health promotion is beyond an individual context, but affects a wider social scope. There exist different methods and levels of health promotion under nursing as this study text will highlight by comparing three articles based on health promotion with regard to Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. In the comparison, this study text will highlight the featured health promotion methods in each article, and in it suggests the roles and responsibilities of nursing in the promotion of health. The first article, Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Swiss Primary Care: Room for Improvement seeks to address potential measures that can be applied in reducing the gaps between COPD patients and healthcare providers. In an analysis conducted in the article, six factors are identified as the causal factors to the identified gaps. They are underdiagnosis of COPD cases, inadequate counseling on smoking cessation, non-adherence in administering recommended treatments, under-use of pulmonary rehabilitation and poor self-management education. The identified health promotion strategies, in this case include establishment of an environment with incentives which support the proper training of health care providers, and their better facilitation with equipment. These combined, COPD patients will be assured of better diagnostic procedures, proper counseling, proper directions on treatment adherence, and finally proper sensitization on self-management (Steurer-Stey, Dallalana & Rosemann, 2012). The second article, Smoking Cessation: the Heart of the Matter focuses on smoking-related effects on health, arguing that the deaths and health complications arising from smoking are unnecessary and can be prevented or reversed. The article further highlights COPD, cancer, and Cardiovascular Disease as the leading causes of death originating from smoking. The mitigation (health promotion) measures suggested include one, health behavior changes. These are aimed at helping smokers quit the habit before it causes them harm. There is also the idea of clinical intervention through cardiac nurses who use a three-step measure in intervening: ASK, which makes known a patient’s smoking status, ADVISE, which provides advice on how to quit smoking, and ACT, which is the actual offering of help to smokers. The ACT can include measures such as medical intervention, advice, or offering smoking cessation trainings (McEwen, 2013). The third article, Smoking Cessation Interventions for COPD: A Review of the Literature provides detailed smoking cessation intervention approaches addressed to smokers who are at risks of contracting smoke-related complications such as cancers, and particularly for this study; COPD. The article states that in as much as several smoking cessation approaches exist, they are insufficient if they are just administered to the smokers and no further intervention follows. In short, there should be more than just suggesting the cessation methods. The first measure would be the provision of an always-available support team such as through telephone hotlines. The second measure would be an improvement of attendance to the smokers and making the improvement settings “more medical”. It is revealed that when the patients encounter the medical environment, they are likelier to maintain their administrations better, thus better recovery levels. The third measure would be provision of social support and motivation. This is attributed to studies conducted which revealed that patients who received these were far much likelier to succeed in quitting their smoking habits. The final mitigation measure would be making follow-ups and recording the progress of the patients on cessation programs. By so doing, it will be possible to tell when one is doing well, or if there is the need of altering the administration of cessation method. These are all measures that would help reverse and prevent the emergence of COPD, cancers, and other smoking-related complications facing tobacco dependents (Pires-Yfantouda, Absalom & Clemens, 2013). In comparing the health promotion, prevention methods highlighted, several trends emerge in them. The general and similar notion arising from the suggestions is that the nursing fraternity should be overly present in the entire health processes. What this means is that the intervention by nursing practitioners is paramount in the promotion of health. As the three articles reveal, nurses are crucial in providing the actual medication, recovery advice, conducting diagnoses, making follow-ups, and providing social support and motivation amongst others. Concisely, nursing extends beyond the passing down of information from higher practitioners to direct intervention which is very crucial in the patient health improvement or sustenance. In this, there emerges the purpose of nurses in health promotion; nurses are responsible for providing extended (extra) support to patients, which in most cases is not directly provided through medical-only means. These include follow-ups, advice, motivation, and counseling, all of which go hand in hand with the prior treatment offered. In a nutshell, it can be concluded that nurses oversee the actual and most important phase of health promotion. Finally, and from these observations, it is sufficient to conclude that the general roles and responsibilities of nurses are undergoing changes in the contemporary health care context. This has been pushed by the emergence of more complex health complications which have in turn activated the need to have nurses empowered some more in order to meet these emerging issues. The modern nurse not only cares for the sick, rather; they conduct further medical researches, give counseling and motivational talks, publish findings that foster medical success, and generally participate in policies which directly address health and health promotion, thus improve the medical fraternity. All these are evident in the roles of nurses as stated in the three articles since they extend beyond just caring for the sick at the medical centers. Conclusion This comparative study based on articles focusing on continence of COPD reveals the changes that the nursing fraternity has undergone with the emergence of such complex diseases. The featured measures are all oriented towards health promotion, and they show that apart from caring for patients, nurses are embracing more responsibilities of promoting health. These include sensitization of behavior changes, providing motivation and social support, and evaluating patient recovery status by making follow-ups. All in all, it is seen that health promotion and changing nursing roles are interplaying in the provision of better healthcare. References McEwen, A. (2013). “Smoking Cessation: The Heart of the Matter.” British Journal of Cardiac Nursing. (8) 9. Pires-Yfantouda, R., Absalom, G., & Clemens, F. (2013). “Smoking Cessation Interventions for COPD: A Review of the Literature.” Respiratory Care. (58) 11. Steurer-Stey, C., Dallalana, K., Jungi, M., & Rosemann, T. (2012). “Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Swiss Primary Care: Room for Improvement”. Quality in Primary Care. (20). Read More