The three primary levels of health prevention (primary, secondary and tertiary) should be utilized. This paper will be a literature review of three journal articles focusing on diabetes mellitus and will discuss the purpose of health promotion in nursing practice; nursing roles and responsibilities in health promotion; nursing actions that promote health prevention and promotion; and finally a comparison of the three primary levels of health prevention. Health Promotion in Nursing
Health promotion is defined as a multifaceted approach to encouraging health related lifestyle changes of individuals and communities with the ultimate goal of enhancing the overall health of the individual and the community (Bennett, Perry, & Lawrence, 2009).
Fry, Gleeson and Rissel (2010), recommend that health promotion be made a separate occupation from nursing. They argue that individuals would be specialists in the field of health promotion which would greatly aid in the health issues experienced by individuals and the community (Fry et al. 2010).
This new occupation has yet to be established, leaving nurses to continue to use health promotion techniques in their practice. Nursing Roles and Responsibilities in Health Promotion Nurses comprise a large and powerful workforce that should be incorporated in health promotion efforts (Fry, Gleeson & Rissel, 2010).
The Essay on Health Promotion 16
Today people believe that they are all healthy. Later, when there are any variations in regard to their health condition, they got shocked. People are not foreseeing how their health affects in every aspect of everyone’s life. In this essay we will describe health promotion of health and its principle. Further it will explain the roles of nurses in promotion of health. The health promotion is ...
Community nurses, especially school nurses have a responsibility to be observant of the people around them and use their knowledge to educate on health promotion and prevention (Bennett et al. , 2009).
By educating school children on reducing modifiable risk factors for diabetes such as obesity, inactivity and poor diet, nurses could potentially decrease the amount of adolescent and adult onset diabetes (Bennett et al. , 2009).
Nursing Actions that Promote Health Nurses play an integral part of health promotion, especially when it comes to diabetes. Nurses should use the nursing process to assess individuals, diagnose, implement a plan to assist with eliminating risk factors, and evaluate the progress achieved.
Nurses in the community have the power to educate individuals on their modifiable risk factors and how to change their lifestyles to prevent the onset on diabetes (Bennett et al. , 2009).
Nurses must continue to educate individuals on health promotion and utilize other members of the health care team, such as social workers, for uninsured or poverty stricken individuals. Comparison of the Primary Levels of Health Prevention Prevention can be broken down into three categories which divide the different types of health promotion and prevention.
primary prevention Primary prevention occurs prior to the onset or contraction of an illness such as giving immunizations (Bennett et al. , 2009).
For diabetes mellitus, primary prevention would be changing eating and exercising habits prior to a diagnosis. Diabetes mellitus has modifiable risk factors that if changed early in life may reduce a person’s risk for developing the disease (Caple & Schub, 2012).
These risk factors include obesity, inactivity, and unhealthy eating habits (Caple & Schub, 2012).
Using a primary prevention approach, an individual or community could greatly reduce their risk of diabetes by reducing their modifiable risk factors (Caple & Schub, 2012).
secondary prevention Secondary prevention is used to maintain a person’s health, lessen the length of illness and prevention progression of an illness (Bennett et al. , 2009).
The Essay on The Meanings of Health and Its Promotion
Relative and Dynamic Nature of Health Dynamic Health is the result of the continually changing process it refers to the constant fluctuations that occur in our level of health. Relative Health refer to how we judge our health compared to other people or other points of time in our life. Relative nature of health Health can be viewed as relative. Relative means in relation to another period of ...
Secondary prevention involves screening examinations. It is recommended that screening for diabetes mellitus be done on overweight and obese individuals (Caple & Schub, 2012).
Since this disease can go on for years without being caught, secondary prevention can be used to identify the disease and attempt to control and maintain the person’s health status (Caple & Schub, 2012).
Since diabetes can be controlled with modifications to an individual’s daily life, goals for participants of diabetes secondary prevention programs would be similar to primary prevention activities such as weight loss, lowering blood lipids and blood pressure, increasing physical activity, reducing consumption of saturated fats, and increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables(Fry et al. 2010).
Tertiary Prevention Tertiary prevention occurs after an individual has acquired a disease and strives to limit complications to the individual’s health (Bennett et al. , 2009).
For example, a person with diabetes mellitus loses a limb. The tertiary prevention model would strive to protect the other limb, and the limb remaining after the amputation. Conclusion Nurses possess a power to assist with changing the way individuals and communities view and utilize health promotion and prevention practices.
Utilizing three journal articles the following topics were discussed: the purpose of health promotion in nursing practice; nursing roles and responsibilities in health promotion; nursing actions that promote health promotion; and a comparison of the three primary levels of health prevention and how they relate to diabetes mellitus. References Bennett, C. , Perry, J. , & Lawrence, Z. (2009).
Promoting health in primary care. Nursing Standard, 23,(47),48-56. Caple, C. & Schub, T. (2012).
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2: Prevention in Children and Adolescents. CINAHL Plus with Full Text, EBSCOhost accessed August 11, 2012. Fry, D. , Gleeson, S. , & Rissel, C. (2010).
The Essay on Concepts of Health Promotion
... then it is considered a behavior of secondary level of prevention. In conclusion, health promotion is a vital component in society ... the plans. A comprehensive assessment of the individual health status is fundamental to health promotion. The nurse has to take in ... setting will begin the health promotion process for this patient, and furthermore refer him to diabetes specialists. Once the patient ...
Health promotion and secondary prevention: response to Milat, O’Hara and Develin. Heath Promotion Journal of Australia, 21(2), 86-91. U. S. Dept of Health and Human Services. (2012).
Healthy People. gov. Closer Look: Health Disparities: Compare the Top 10 Causes of Death across Populations. Retrieved on August 10,2012 from
