Introduction
Despite the fact that nurse practitioners are obliged to inform their patients, provide medical services, and make various records, they also have to be competent in the sphere of health promotion and education. Nurses are expected to explain basic standards of a healthy lifestyle to people who might not be aware of such practices and to children who have never met any diseases or other issues before. The following paper will cover and discuss the role of nurse practitioners as health educators in today’s world.
Discussion
Every citizen has to be aware of the primary rules that one needs to follow to have robust health and long life. Therefore, nurse practitioners’ duties include various educational practices and events to prevent people from catching particular diseases (Jogerst et al., 2015). Moreover, some NP’s specialize only in health education, which gives them more opportunities to develop innovative explanation methods and visual aids for their potential audiences (Sharma, 2017).
However, the position of health educator implies a plethora of consultations that must be given to patients with uncommon diseases, promotion of wellness, and appropriate lifestyle activities that are intended to reduce various illnesses’ risks (Kris-Etherton et al., 2015). Moreover, the health educators’ primary goal lies in making the audience aware of their conditions in unexpected or unordinary cases. This knowledge is instrumental because sometimes people’s reaction to their symptoms has to be immediate. Otherwise, they might be at risk of death, paralysis, and many other untreatable outcomes.
It would be proper to mention that some citizens of the United States of America do not know how to keep fit, healthy, and energized because this topic is usually disregarded by parents, peers, and society in general. Fortunately, this situation has changed during the last two decades due to various professional activities of health educators (Poghosyan, Boyd, & Knutson, 2014). The progress in this sphere is tremendous because approximately seventy years ago, the majority of American residents did not even know that smoking causes harm to the human lungs.
If a nurse practitioner works at a hospital, he or she is expected to develop, administer, and organize health education activities for patients, delegations, or other groups that attend such lectures to become self-confident and aware of various biological processes (Sharma, 2017). The most common topics for NP’s to discuss during their classes are the spine and vision issues because many patients spend most of their time in front of computer screens.
This problem is crucial in the United States of America, as contemporary populations are not as active as previous generations were (Alligood, 2017). However, the role of a nurse practitioner as a health educator also includes giving recommendations to people who suffer from particular health biases. Moreover, NP’s who are occupied with education practices, should analyze and address potential risks to the society and provide their audience with all possible methods of their prevention (Barnes, 2015). It is an interesting fact that any person who might be interested in his or her physical condition is allowed to consult health educators for free if the latter people have spare time.
Conclusion
A nurse practitioners’ role in the sphere of health education implies composing plans, administering classes, researching various medical issues, and giving credible information to patients who will benefit from it. NP’s who are involved in this field are also obliged to serve citizens as health education resources because many people are not aware of common illnesses and their symptoms. Although some nurses are occupied with health education, there is a separate degree and trained professionals who specialize in this sphere.
References
Alligood, M. R. (2017). Nursing theorists and their work. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
Barnes, H. (2015). Exploring the factors that influence nurse practitioner role transition. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 11(2), 178-183. Web.
Jogerst, K., Callender, B., Adams, V., Evert, J., Fields, E., Hall, T.,… Wilson, L. L. (2015). Identifying interprofessional global health competencies for 21st-century health professionals. Annals of Global Health, 81(2), 239-247. Web.
Kris-Etherton, P. M., Akabas, S. R., Douglas, P., Kohlmeier, M., Laur, C., Lenders, C. M.,… Saltzman, E. (2015). Nutrition competencies in health professionals education and training: A new paradigm. Advances in Nutrition: An International Review Journal, 6(1), 83-87. Web.
Poghosyan, L., Boyd, D., & Knutson, A. R. (2014). Nurse practitioner role, independent practice, and teamwork in primary care. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 10(7), 472-479. Web.
Sharma, M. (2017). Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.