The role of the nurse in health promotion
Health promotion is a popular phrase. What does it mean, really? How does someone promote health? I’m going to address the concept of health promotion from my perspective as a Registered Nurse in Ontario. Nurses play a huge role in illness prevention and health promotion. We, as nurses assume the role of ambassadors of wellness. Yes, I do believe that nurses play just as an important role in caring for the well as they do in caring for the sick. Perhaps caring for the well is the more important role. In this day and age of budget cuts, cost reduction and staffing shortages, health promotion makes sense. If we can preserve wellness, we reduce the number of times a person needs to enter the health-care system, thus reducing costs.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health promotion as a process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health (WHO, 1986). To facilitate that process, we must provide people with appropriate information. Nurses have a key role in providing that information in the form of health teaching. Nurses are highly educated, experienced health professionals who are accessible through many settings. Telehealth Ontario is a great example of how anyone can access the expertise of a nurse. Anyone can call in with a question, concern or health issue and gain information while being advised of a plan of action right over the phone. Of course, without being able to use hands-on assessment skills, this can be limiting when it comes to dealing with an acute scenario. Telehealth is not for resolving situations that require immediate attention. Nurses can direct people to local resources and give out health and wellness information. Telehealth would be useful when parents seek well-baby/well child information, information on vaccines, smoking cessation, addiction counseling, adolescent mental health resources, nutrition information etc. These are examples of situations where access to accurate health information can assist people in staying healthy.
via Hospital News.