The role of health education in health promotion

 
Explain the role of health education in health promotion. How is the nursing process used in developing health education? Describe a contemporary issue, local or global, that a family may experience today. What steps would the nurse take to address these as part of a health education plan?
The role of health education in health promotion is vital. Health promotion by definition is “educating people about healthy lifestyles, reduction of risk, developmental needs, activities of daily living (ADL’s) and preventive self-care.” (Whitney et al., 2018). In order to live a healthy lifestyle an individual must know what a “healthy lifestyle” consists of. The same goes for reducing risks, ADL’s, preventative self-care and developmental needs. It is important for the healthcare professional or in our case, the nurse, to educate an individual continuously for the duration of the patient’s care with the nurse. They should be educated on what the medications are that they are being given, as well as why it is being administered, dosage, route etc. For example, patients always want to know why they are getting Lovenox or Protonix when they have not taken it before. They should also be educated on diet choices, at the hospital that I work at, sometimes the patients will be placed on certain diets like nothing by mouth (NPO), American Diabetes Association (ADA), renal, heart healthy, low potassium etc., and they state that they do not have diet restrictions at home, so they have to be educated on why they were placed on the diet and they should consider this type of diet once discharged.
The nursing process is used in developing health education because the nurse must assess the patient. This assessment is not only a head to toe assessment, but the nurse must also determine the patients needs, readiness to learn and the patient’s ability and desire to actively engage in their plan of care and meeting goals. Then the nurse makes their nursing diagnoses, for example is their non-compliance evident, immobility, learning deficit etc. The nurse then develops a plan of care and action that can be made with the patient and begins to implement the plan of care. The nurse and patient evaluate how well they are meeting their care goals and continue to develop a plan that changes to the patients needs and better assists with meeting goals. Throughout the whole process the nurse is educating the patient on what the problem is preventing the patient from getting better and then the nurse educates the patient on how they can work towards solving that problem.
A contemporary issue that a family may experience today is the issue of vaccination.