Nurses' Role in Illness Prevention and Health Promotion
Nurses play an important role in illness prevention by promoting health in medical institutions of all sizes. According to Chomistek et al. (2015), nurses serve as wellness ambassadors by caring for both the sick and non-sick populations. According to Pizzi (2015), one of the most important aspects of a nurse's job is caring for the non-sick. Currently, healthcare is characterized by huge budget cuts, shortages in vital infrastructures such as human resources, and cost reduction; factors that make health promotion an urgent need. According to Young et al. (2014), preservation of wellness goes a long way in instilling reductions in a populace's frequency of seeking healthcare services; leading to cost cuts. To facilitate the process of health promotion, there is need for providing the public with information that is appropriate to their requirements. Nurses play a crucial role in availing the information needed in healthcare settings to promote wellness based on their levels of knowledge and the fact that they are easily accessible in multiple settings.
The Role of Nurses in Availing Healthcare Information
The inception of Tele-health accounts for one of the most important roles played by nurses in healthcare settings to facilitate the promotion of wellness. Tele-health allows for members of the public to access and contact varied nursing platforms then asks questions pertaining health issues. On the other hand, nurses are highly enabled in these platforms to direct clients to local care stations by offering the information needed to promote health and wellness. According to Young et al. (2014), Tele-health has been of great use among members of the populace like parents in need of information to promote wellness among their children, people seeking information pertaining medicines and vaccines; guidance on smoking cessation; counseling on the issues of addiction; nutritional guidance and resources on mental health among adolescents. Chomistek et al. (2015) explain that timely access to accurate healthcare and wellness information goes a long way in ensuring that a populace stays healthy.
Technological Advancements in Healthcare and Nurses' Role
Technological advancements in healthcare as a field of professionalism have led to the development of multiple webpages offering health information to the entire public. According to Pizzi (2015), these technologies act as links between healthcare professionals like nurses and the public. On the other hand, internet searching could be highly threatening based on its ability to avail pieces of information which may be inaccurate and extremely out of date. However, the fact that governments and medical firms have gone a notch higher to embrace nurses in such avenues has played a critical role in ensuring that the issues of inaccuracy and out of datedness are eliminated. According to Young et al. (2014), nurses are given the roles of advising patients on the websites they should access to get the appropriate information they require to foster treatments in varied medical conditions. On the other hand, nurses can take advantage of these technological platforms to increase their scope of knowledge concerning certain specified medical conditions. Further, Chomistek et al. (2015) explain that nurses may use the internet and other information technologies to retrieve the materials needed to educate patients on their conditions.
Nurses' Educational Interventions
Nurses offer educational interventions in their interactions with the public in instances where they are effectively embraced as members of a health promotion model. According to Pizzi (2015), nurses find great opportunities to discuss critical underlying issues of a disease. For instance, they may offer professional advice on issues like blood sugar control when dressing a diabetic foot ulcer. In clinical settings, nurses create opportunities of availing information in instances where the patient under consideration has a cut by educating them on the use of tetanus boosters. On the other hand, these professionals make home visits the perfect moments of fostering discussions on critical issues like the most appropriate vaccine schedules, make recommendations on vitamin supplements as well as proper development of milestones for older children. In these scenarios, nurses are obliged to constant practice of health promotion. According to Young et al. (2014), it is through proper comprehension and recognition of these interactions which may be looked at as being subtle that credit is offered to nurses as critical agents in promoting health.
Conclusion
Nurses play a crucial role in availing the information needed in healthcare settings to promote wellness based on their levels of knowledge and the fact that they are easily accessible in multiple settings. In their interactions with nurses, patients need to ensure that they make the most of the knowledge and expertise they possess. Further, the exceptional skills nurses have make them great thinkers based on the considerable levels of ability they have in fostering communications, negotiations, coordination and collaborations in order to deliver effective and efficient care. On the other hand, the technological platforms availed in healthcare settings play a crucial role in ensuring that both nurses and their patients are presented with information that is up to date. Currently, nurses take advantage of these technological platforms to ensure that their patients are given the educative healthcare information needed to promote wellness.
References
Chomistek, A. K., Chiuve, S. E., Eliassen, A. H., Mukamal, K. J., Willett, W. C., & Rimm, E. B. (2015). Healthy lifestyle in the primordial prevention of cardiovascular disease among young women. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 65(1), 43-51.
Pizzi, M. A. (2015). Promoting health and well-being at the end of life through client-centered care. Scandinavian journal of occupational therapy, 22(6), 442-449.
Young, H., Miyamoto, S., Ward, D., Dharmar, M., Tang-Feldman, Y., & Berglund, L. (2014). Sustained effects of a nurse coaching intervention via telehealth to improve health behavior change in diabetes. Telemedicine and e-Health, 20(9), 828-834.
