Today, most of the emphasis in health care is on disease and death, and only minimal information concerning how to achieve, measure, or maintain health is available. Wellness and illness exist simultaneously with each of us ; you must relate to both aspects of the person.
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The following are considered factors that promote personal health for you and others :
a. Assessing present health status regularly through periodic health examinations, including dental checkups, and participating in mass screening programs in the community.
b. Learning preventive measures and warning signals of disease, such at those published by the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association.
c. Caring for the body functions, including those factors affecting the skin, mucous membranes, teeth, elimination, and sensory organs.
d. Avoiding products harmful to health. For example, excess in tobacco, drugs, alcohol, or food.
e. Avoiding extreme stress, fatigue, or exhaustion, providing for adequate relaxation, rest and sleep, and using relaxation techniques, if necessary. Effectiveness of relaxation techniques has been demonstrated.
f. Maintaining essential nutrition.
f. Maintaining essential nutrition.
g. Using safety measures or devices, such as seat belts, to prevent injury.
h. Securing necessary immunizations for the children and adults in the family, especially with wide travel and resurgence of communicable diseases.
In addition to these factors, observing the basic principles of good personal hygiene is necessary. For example, avoid such behavior as using other persons` drinking and eating utensils, eating leftover portions of their food, and sharing towels or combs.
Preventive health behavior is related to subjective ideas about vulnerability and present state, the value placed on health and early detection, and the sense of internal versus external control.
Family historys is important; the greater the incidence of specific illness within the family and the closer the blood relationship of the affected persons to an individual, the more likely the person will feel vulnerable. Feeling weak or fatigued, having been ill within the year, or identifying self as part of a high-risk group also increase the sense of personal vulnerability. Anticipating a health problem can motivate the person to do something to prevent it.
Four factors contribute to the perceived seriousness of any given health problem : (1) degree of threat; (2) overt visibility of illness or disability; (3) degree of interference with a person`s life-style, family, or occupational roles; and (4) communicability of disease to others. The person`s concern for the welfare of others may be greater than for his own hhealth. Thus preventive measures are more likely to be followed for communicable disease than for those that affect only the individual.
The person chooses the preventive services that are perceived as being most effective in lowering the threat of illness. The higher the educational or socioeconomic levels, the more will people be aware of the whole range of preventive health alternatives available.
The person who feels powerless of feels that he has little control over his environment is not likely to try preventive health behavior. The person who feels that he controls himself internally perceives self as less vulnerable to ill health and usually takes preventive health actions.
Four key considerations influence the dicision to seek preventive health services. First; the person may seek health care because of family encouragement. Second, patterns of using preventive services are learned in the family. The level of the mother`s education correlates highly with preventive practices since the mother is often the decision maker in this area. Third, expectations of friends are powerful motivators to seek preventive health care, since parents especially want to fulfill the expectation of peers, neighbors, or friends about what “good parents should do”. Fourth, information and recpectful care from health professionals also increase the readiness to engage in preventive health behavior, especially if the health professional is seen as knowledgeable and caring. The small group approach to giving information is more effective than teaching only one person. However, knowing what is healthful is no guarantee that the person will follow healthful patterns of living.
Situational determinants that influence the decision to practice preventive measures include cultural values on health and prevention, group norms and pressures, and information from mass media.
Yet, various barriers impede a person`s action, even after he has decided to take action : high costs, incomveience, unpleasantness of treatment measures of facilities, pain, fear of findings from early detection measures, inability to decide which course of action would be best, psychological needs that are fulfilled by the illness, or prescribed changes in life-style which are perceived as undesirable.
You should do everything possible within the agency to structure policies and the environment to meet the needs of those who present themselves for preventive health care. Unnecessary waiting lines; a cold, harsh manner; excessive noise, heat, or cold in the waiting area; architectural barriers that impede movement by persons with wheelchairs, walkers, or canes can be eliminated or minimized in order to avoid discouraging those who come or who might return for care. Some services could be taken to the cliens` homes, places of employment, and schools. Additionally, churches, playgrounds, laundromats, and beauty shops could be viewed as centers to periodically provide certain teaching or screening services.
Increasing emphasis will be placed on preventive health behaviors because of the trend initiated by the federal legislation and an active consumer.
You have a personal responsibility to promote your own health as well as that of those under your care. Society has always expected contributions from its members commensurate with their educational background. Therefore, you are viewed as having more responsibility than the average citizen for personal health promotion.
References :
Murray, RB and Zentner JP., Nursing Concepts for Health Promotion, Second Edtion, Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, 1979.
Auger, Jeanine, Behavioral System and Nursing. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1976.
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Beeson, Gerald, “The Health-Illness Spectrum”, American Journal of Public Health, 1967.
Bloomfield, Harold, “Transcendental Meditation as an Aid to Medical Practice”, Nursing Digest, 1976.
Helsing, K., and G. Comstock, “What kinds of People Do Not Use Seat Belts?” American Journal of Public Health, 1977.
Peters, Ruanne, H. Benson, and D. Porter, “Daily Relaxation Breaks in a Working Population: I Effects on Self-Reported Measures of Health Performance and Well-Being,” Amaerican Journal of Public Health, 1977.
Peters, Ruanne, H. Benson, D. Porter, and J. Peters, “Daily Relaxation Response Breaks in a Working Population : II. Effects on Blood Presure,” Amaerican Journal of Public Health, 1977.
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Mileo, Nancy, “A Framework for Prevention : Changing Health-Damaging to Health-Generating Patterns,” Amaerican Journal of Public Health, 1976.
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