Choose one of the following prompts:
• From a public health perspective, why is it important to shift from a disease oriented medical model of health care to one of a health promotion and prevention model?
• Which of the approaches used to foster health promotion within a community seems to be the most effective? What factors would need to be addressed in making a decision as to what approach to use?
Goals
After completing this module, you will be able to do the following:
• Describe the concept of community empowerment and how it relates to community engagement.
• Discuss four models of health promotion.
• Discuss the general approaches/strategies including health education, social marketing, branding and tailoring, legislation, and use of community health workers that are used by public health officials to foster health promotion within the community.
• Describe two conceptual frameworks used to devise a community-based programs/initiative.
Overview
Public health nurses are involved in a broad scope of patient and population issues. In 2013 CDC listed 13 public health issue the agency is addressing which included infections, heart attacks and strokes, smoking, food safety, children’s mental health, preventive services for adolescents and children, parasitic diseases and violence on children. Others would list hypertension, cancers, teen pregnancy, injury and violence, drug abuse, gun violence, or homelessness as the most pressing public health issues facing our nation. There are other subgroups of our population that have special needs both medical and psychosocial or have multiple challenges in reaching or maintaining their own health. Men’s health, women’s health, the elderly, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, homeless, employee health, and incarcerated populations are examples of these other populations.