To raise awareness of opportunities for nurses to promote health and well being - Essay Example

To Raise Awareness of Opportunities for Nurses to Promote Health and Well Being This essay aims to raise awareness of opportunities for nurses in promoting health and well-being by identifying one’s contribution to the assessment of health needs, opportunities for health promotion, as well as the networks or agencies involved in health promotion. To Raise Awareness of Opportunities for Nurses to Promote Health and Well Being Introduction Health promotion comes along with health education. We may not notice but it is always present in our daily lives where health is an essential need thus, we acquire education or learning to preserve or improve the quality of life we have.

Health promotion refers to planned activities or interventions designed to persuade, educate or incorporate learning to adapt healthy lifestyles and achieve positive health outcomes. In 1984, the World Health Organization outlined the simplest definition of health promotion as a “unifying concept for those who recognize the need for change in the ways and conditions of living, in order to promote health”(Tones & Tilford, 2001, p. 18). Therefore, health promotion address ways to improve health and and prevent diseases by focusing on the Health Field Concept which includes individual behavior and lifestyle, social and environmental determinants, health services, and gemetic predisposition (Tones & Tilford, 2001, p. 18). As a future nurse, it is significantly important to fully understand health promotion and its application.

I started being involved in health promotion activities when I was a student nurse at Rosendale Health Center. This center provides advice and support on child immunization, and advice for new mothers on sleeping, diet, food as well as potty training and breast feeding. This center also conducts home visits and creates an opportunity for me to promote health and well-being. I was with my mentor doing a home visit and an eight-week development reviewto a new mother and baby. It was at this visit that the mother apologized for the smell of smoke that had drifted from outside into the house and expressed her desire to stop smoking.

I understand the need of health promotion activities and with the supervision of my mentor, I became involved in promoting smoking cessation. Contribution to the Assessment of Health Needs Smoking cessation advice as well as its deleterious effects to the mother and child was provided. The assessment of health needs had contributed to the identification that cigarette components pass through breast milk thereby exposing the infant to harmful compounds, and that the child is at risk for developing asthma and worst, suffered from sudden infant death syndrome (Dunkley, 2000, p. 115). Identification of Opportunities for Health Promotion The best time to identify opportunities for health promotion is upon the initial assessment or during conversation with the client.

This phase of nurse-client interaction is the right approach in determining the health needs of the client. In promoting smoking cessation, it is important that the client verbalized readiness to change smoking behavior as well as eliciting thoughts, feelings, and information about smoking. It was at this phase that we had identified that there is a need for health education thus health promotion about smoking cessation starts once the client asks questions. The nurse has the responsibility of providing information and this can be achieved by: establishing the nature of the client’s behavior, the number of cigarettes smoked per day, as well as the reasons for smoking.

After gathering all the baseline information, it is time to make necessary changes to ensure successful smoking cessation. It is also important that changes are approved by the client, start of smoking cessation is specific, visual aids and self-help manuals are provided, and appropriate records are kept (Dunkley, 2000, p. 121). Identification of Networks/Agencies Involved in Health Promotion Networks or agencies promoting smoking cessation in United Kingdom vary. These are the: County Durham and Darlington Smoking Cessation Services, Gateshead and South Tyneside Smoking Cessation Service, Merton, Sutton, and Wandsworth Smoking Cessation Service, North Birmingham Smoking Cessation Service, “You Two Can Quit” Smoking Cessation Service (Smoking in Pregnancy), North West Lancashire Smoking Cessation Service, New Leaf (Nottingham), Oxfordshire Smoking Advice Service, Plymouth Smoking Advice Service (South and West Devon Health Authority), Help 2 Quit (Shropshire & Telford HA), and Warwickshire Stop Smoking Service.

All of these resources aim to provide intensive support program in the form of support groups or one-on-one interaction with a specialist in order to quit smoking (West, McNeill & Raw, 2003, p. 21-34). References Dunkley, J. (2000). Smoking During Pregnancy - Strategies for Damage Limitation. Health Promotion in Midwifery: A Resource for Health Professionals.(p. 108-127) London: Harcourt Publishers Limited. Tones, K. & Tilford, S. (2001). Successful Health Promotion: The Challenge. Health Promotion: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity.(3rd ed.) (p. 2-68) Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd. West R., McNeill, A. & Raw, A. (2003).

Meeting Department of Health: Recommendations for Primary Care Trusts. Health Development Agency, p. 1-36. Retrieved from http://www.nice.org.uk/niceMedia/documents/smoking_cessation_targets_part1.pdf