According to Public Health Ontario, health promotion is the process of introducing a variety of social and environmental programs including promoting healthy behaviors, enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health (2015). This is an important concept for many people in todays society especially here in Ontario as it is reported by Statistics Canada that 52. 6% of people are obese or overweight (2013). Health Promotion doesn’t only refer to obesity but the whole well-being of a person in general.
However, I believe that obesity is an important aspect of health promotion as it can lead to so many other health concerns such as heart disease and diabetes (Karriem-Norwood, 2014. ). Health promotion is a very broad term with so many different meanings and I agree with almost all of them. Even though they are all slightly different, they all have one main aspect in common; making people healthy. People need to be more aware of how to become healthy individuals as it will not only help themselves but also the health care system.
For every one dollar that is put into health promotion programs it can save the healthcare system around three to five dollars by reducing the employee costs (Dombrowski, Snelling, & Kalick, 2014). Health promotion is also very effective in disease and illness prevention. If individuals know how to stay healthy and use the resources available to them to do so, then this will drastically reduce the rate at which people fall ill.
I believe that health promotion should be brought to the attention of all parents with young children so they can teach their children how to not only live a healthy lifestyle but also maintain one. I understand that it is up to the government and individual health care systems to promote health, implement these programs and make it known to the public that they exist, however once that is done everyone should be encouraged to take full advantage of the opportunities given and become active members in their own health and wellness.
Health promotion is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society as chronic disease is on the rise (Dombrowski et al. , 2014). The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that in Canada 89% of deaths are caused by chronic disease, it also reports that over the next ten years 2 million people will die from chronic disease (2015). As a nursing student I believe it is our duty to incorporate health promotion into our patient’s everyday lives and try to keep them healthy as long as possible by teaching them how to take proper care of themselves.
Health promotion is not just about promoting healthy people to stay healthy, however, it includes achieving an individuals personal best even in a disease stricken stage of their life. This is to say that even someone suffering from cancer, although already sick can still be the best possible version of themselves at the time, through the help of their healthcare providers and their willingness to listen to health promotion concepts. As stated in the article by Dombrowski et al, there are a variety of different concepts that are essential to health promotion (2014).
These include self-efficacy which can be described as a person’s perception of their own capability to initiate change in their life, and behavior change which is the actual action in which people take to make a change in their lifestyle. With positive health promotion reinforcement people can make the necessary changes needed in order to make a difference in their health. Although, without consistent and persistent health promotion people can easily lose sight of the benefits and rewards that come along with health.
Being in the nursing field I believe that health and wellness are a way of life. It takes an effort to stay healthy and a lot of people give up on it. With the exception of genetic disorders that are out of your control, your health is in your own hands, and the only thing that is going to make you sick is yourself. According to the Government of Canada, more then 60,000 new cases of type 2 diabetes are being diagnosed yearly and it is one of the fastest growing disease in our country (2013).
This is ironic as type 2 diabetes can usually be easily prevented by eating healthy, getting exercise and losing extra weight (Prevention, 2014). Through effective health promotion that people are made aware of, this number should be drastically decreasing, not increasing. Over the last few years’ health promotion has become very popular and if it is working, then this should lead to a decrease of chronic disease not an increase (Reflections, n. d. ).
Disease affects more then just the individual, it affects the family and community as well. It is reported in a research article by Abe, M. Turale, S. , Klunklin, A. , and Supamanee, T that patients with HIV and AIDS, through positive health promotion did not feel as lonely about their situation (2014). Their families, communities and volunteers were also educated on the topic of HIV and AIDS as a form of health promotion and this made them feel more comfortable about dealing with their affected family members. This is the practice of effective health promotion and how it can have a very good outcome for everyone. This article demonstrates that health promotion is important even after someone is already sick.
It teaches people to cope with their situation or deal with a health issue before it becomes a problem. This can be a valuable tool for many people as it helps them understand the value of health if they do not already know the importance of it. I think many people take their health for granted until it is too late and they are past the point of correcting it. HIV has a stigma around it and can make many people feel uncomfortable being around someone they know has contracted HIV (Abe, M. et al, 2014). With the aid of health promotion, it can make people more aware of the benefits of staying healthy.
Health Promotion in nursing is very important as they are one of the most accessible workers in the hospital always out on the front lines. They are the liaison to doctors and have a lot of informative knowledge. Because nurses are always the ones dealing with patients they are the most likely to be the primary promoters of health. Nurses play a crucial part in the health care system as they are heavily relied on by all other hospital staff and I would consider them the backbones of every hospital. According to the article by Whitehead, health promotion and health education are two different things, yet they are interrelated (2011).
I think that this is a vital detail in health promotion because health education is teaching people facts and knowledge about health but not actually how to achieve it, health promotion on the other hand essentially teaches an individual how to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Health education is still very important but should not get confused with health promotion. This is a common problem with nursing staff and can lead to the undermining of health promotion amongst nurses. (Whitehead, 2011). In conclusion, I believe that health promotion is very beneficial to everyone.
It leads to positive outcomes that can have a huge impact on the health care system. Through health promotion we can decrease chronic illness rates and increase wellness. I think that there should be an emphasis put on health care workers to continue to promote health and encourage all their patients and even just people they come in contact with, to understand the importance of health and wellness. With the rise of chronic illness especially here in Canada it is clear something needs to be done before the issue gets out of hand. Health promotion is a good step in the right direction to making Canada a healthier country.