How do you envision yourself fulfilling the role of health advocate in your community

How do you envision yourself fulfilling the role of health advocate in your community

Please share how your thinking has changed about health and wellness and ways you might incorporate this knowledge into your nursing career.
How do you envision yourself fulfilling the role of health advocate in your community
Discuss the professional nurse’s role in health-promotion activities
Examine theories and concepts related to health-promotion activities
Discuss health promotion, illness prevention, health maintenance, health restoration, and rehabilitation in relation to the nurse’s role in working with various populations
Discuss the influences of moral, ethical, and legal principles on professional nursing practice
Identify effective communication with clients and other healthcare providers
Discuss attitudes and actions that influence personal, educational, and professional development
Identify health-promotion strategies throughout the life span

Potter, P.A., Perry, A.G., Stockert, P., & Hall, A. (2017). Fundamentals of nursing. (9thed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.

 

SOLUTION

My thinking about health and wellness has changed in that now, I understand it is not only about mental and physical wellbeing. There is also social, environmental, spiritual, intellectual, and occupational wellbeing.  This will help me as a nurse in ensuring that I use a holistic approach when dealing with patients. In my community, I will be fulfilling the role of health advocate by supporting the[cmppp_restricted] disadvantaged or the vulnerable people and ensure their healthcare rights are being upheld.

The role of a nurse in health promotion entails partnering and collaborating with populations and communities to help enable people to have increased control over their health in order to actualize desired improvement (Evans et al., 2017). Among concepts and theories related to health promotion, there is the health belief model, social cognitive theory, stages of change model, ecological models, and social cognitive theory. These theories and concepts are normally used in program planning to help understand health behavior hence guiding in the development, identification, and implementation of varied interventions.

Health promotion involves the process of ensuring that people have increased control over their health. Illness prevention focuses on efforts that help to reduce the development and severity of illness. Health maintenance, on the other hand, entails a guiding principle where the emphasis is on disease prevention and health promotion rather than management of illness or symptoms (Potter et al., 2017). Health restoration on its part entails urgent, critical, emergency to safely restore health and promote coping or support peaceful death in case of complications, illness, or injury.

Ethical, moral, and legal principles enable nurses to focus on the rights and care of patients without any prejudice. Effective communication in healthcare entails showing empathy, listening, mindful of body language, being patient, not interrupting, thinking before speaking, and being open to feedback (McCormack & McCance, 2017).

Actions and attitudes that influence educational, personal and professional development entail superior listening skills, effective communication skills, passion for the subject matter, strong work ethic, ability to build caring relationships, and community-building skills, among others (Purnell & Fenkl, 2019). Health promotion strategies throughout the life span include enabling, mediating, and advocacy.

 

References

Evans, D., Coutsaftiki, D., & Fathers, P. (2017). Health Promotion and Public Health for Nursing Students (3rd ed.). Learning Matters.

McCormack, B., & McCance, T. (2017). Person-centred practice in nursing and health care: Theory and Practice (2nd ed.). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Potter, P.A., Perry, A.G., Stockert, P., & Hall, A. (2017). Fundamentals of nursing. (9thed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.

Purnell, L., & Fenkl, E. (2019). Handbook for Culturally Competent Care. Springer. [/cmppp_restricted]