NUR 2868 How Can You, One Nurse, Educate Clients in Your Facility

“Education for those in health-care professions must increase in depth and breadth as scientific knowledge expands,” the ANA noted (Catalano, p.91). Catalano asserts that there has been a dearth of proper preparation for training clients with self-management issues, particularly those with chronic illnesses, and that this dearth of education constitutes a grave breach of health care providers’ ethical responsibility.

Are you in agreement or disagreement with these statements, and if so, why?
Is it the Nurse’s fault because clients are not properly educated?
Is it necessary for the Nurse to have a certain level of education?
Why are you in this state of mind?

In a school setting, school nurses wear numerous hats.
They treat minor illnesses and injuries, offer or supervise health care for children with special health care requirements, monitor health screenings, advocate for students, work on interdisciplinary teams, and counsel students, families, and school employees.
Health education is a critical responsibility for nurses in all settings.
Nursing education programs place a high premium on patients or clients understanding their health care requirements in order to repair, maintain, or promote health.
This information enables patients to make informed choices, cope more effectively with temporary or long-term changes in health, and take on a larger sense of personal responsibility for their health.
The majority of nurses are quite comfortable communicating with patients/clients and families on an individual basis.
Individualized instruction, sometimes referred to as patient instruction, typically focuses on the unique information required by an individual at this particular time.
It can be tailored to the individual’s circumstances and level of comprehension, validated throughout interaction, and questions addressed during the training session.
Nurses provide this type of instruction in a variety of locations, including school health offices.
Individual patient education is a time-consuming and costly nursing intervention from a cost-effectiveness standpoint.
A more cost-effective method of health education is to target large groups interested in specific topics such as nutrition and weight loss, groups at risk of developing specific conditions such as sexually transmitted diseases, or groups in need of specific information such as hand washing or oral hygiene.

While many of the stages involved in developing a teaching program for individuals are similar to those involved in developing an educational program for a group, there are a number of issues to consider when presenting health education to a group.
Numerous baccalaureate nursing programs place a premium on health education in community health nursing and include coursework on the process of planning, executing, and evaluating educational programs.
As part of their clinical experience, practicum students in community settings, including schools, frequently develop and implement health education initiatives.
School nurses must consistently improve their abilities as health educators in the classroom.
This includes not only information about topics of interest to the school-aged population, but also the skills necessary for conducting a needs assessment, writing objectives, developing programs, selecting delivery strategies, and developing measurement tools for determining the outcomes or effectiveness of health education.

Health education, which dates all the way back to the origins of modern nursing, has developed into one of nursing’s primary functions.
Numerous early definitions of nursing highlighted the responsibility of nurses in assisting patients in achieving self-care by equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to restore health, maintain health, avoid disease, or achieve a better level of wellbeing.
Educating individuals, families, and communities about the need of nutrition, sanitation, and limiting the spread of communicable disease was a primary priority of nursing at the turn of the twentieth century.
As knowledge about diseases and their treatment increased, nurses transitioned from community settings where health education was a primary focus to hospitals where the focus was on treating illness and providing patient education to individuals and families.
As we enter the twenty-first century, the critical nature of health education becomes clearer, as future advances in American health will be gained through lifestyle modification, which benefits many, rather than highly technological and expensive therapies that benefit a few.
Prevention of chronic disorders afflicting many Americans’ health, such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and cancer, is more cost efficient than treating these diseases once they have developed.
Because many of the health behaviors associated with these disorders begin and are reinforced during childhood, nurses who work with children and families have a chance to promote healthy lifestyles through school-based health education.

HEALTH EDUCATION: A RELATIONSHIP