Health Promotion in Nursing - Essay Example

"Health Promotion in Nursing" is an engrossing example of a paper on care.
Nurses work in environments with diverse lifestyles and cultures. They have to serve all the patients adequately in the interest of their health regardless of the differences. In this regard, nurses must learn to overcome the issues of diversity and culture while handling their day to day activities. The issues of culture and diversity are important in nursing since they arise more often and are vital in understanding the patient.

Health promotion is one way through which the effects of diversity and culture can be felt. Nurses are tasked with offering health education to prevent illnesses, in addition to enforcing treatment (Linsley, Kane & Owen, 2011). As such, the approach through which a nurse approaches a patient determines the outcome of health promotion. Nurses must understand the learning styles of the patients before embarking on education. This is to make sure that patients indeed understand what they are taught.  The nurses can determine the learning styles of patients by interacting with them and offering a friendly environment.

Health promotion is key in reducing hospital admissions. Thus, nurses should take all measures to entice patients to accept health education.  A multidisciplinary approach can be used to enhance understanding in cases where patients are unwilling to understand or give up their lifestyles. Nurses can use diagrams, charts, and examples to persuade the patient to adhere to their health proposals. The essence of all this should be to make the patient easy so that the nurse can wind around the diversity and cultural barriers. Consequently, the language used in health promotion should be understood by the patient. It is preferable to use a language that the patient is fluent in to avoid misunderstandings that may arise from interpretations.

During health promotion and education of patients, there arises different opinions and convictions. Patients have something to say regarding their culture, especially their lifestyle. In fact, most patients are very unwilling to abandon their lifestyles for the sake of health. In this regard, nurses may find themselves arguing with the patients on the way forward to solve their problems. Since nurses are experts on health issues, it is important to convince the patient and ensure that the recommended approach prevails (Maville & Herta, 2012). But, how can this be done if the patient is rigid and convinced about his own lifestyle?

A nurse can use different approaches to address differing opinions. For example, if a nurse is advising a patient with the prospects of getting lung cancer to quit smoking, it is highly likely that the patient may object to change his lifestyle. The nurse may take a debate stance and avoid making authoritative conclusions that may irritate the patient.  However, the nurse should convince him to quit. He or she can do it by befriending the patient and thereby advise him or her as a friend. Moreover, a nurse can cite various sources to show the patient that the majority of people support non-smoking habits for patients with lung cancer or high probabilities of getting lung cancer. By doing this, a nurse can succeed in educating a patient.