The health-illness continuum is a model that illustrates a continuously changing process of wellness, good health, normal health, illness, and death. This applies to everyone because it shows the changes that an individual goes through while adapting to various life changes and challenges to maintain good health still. The model’s status can change depending on the current level of health and wellness that an individual is in. This model is relevant to healthcare because it showcases the current state of health of a person (Brooksidepress.org, 2015) NRS 434NV Human Experience Across the Health-Illness Continuum Essay.
It is also important to note that having a positive perspective highly influences the health of the patients and the beautiful human experience shared when taking care of them. Empathy and understanding also help in building a connection with the patients. The health-illness continuum refers to physical health and an overall view of a person, including emotional and psychological health, and that is also the reason why having the right perspective is vital to an individual’s well-being regardless of age. A person’s perspective is very powerful in that it can move towards where it wants to be in the health-illness continuum.
An example of this is a person diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, and he/she can demonstrate either a positive outlook or a negative one. If she chooses to sulk and complain about the condition, his/her place on the spectrum will not move for the better, and it may even worsen the condition in comparison to when he/she views the condition as a positive thing wherein he/she can choose, such as having to control what healthy food to eat and what types of exercise to do.
Understanding the health-illness continuum and the effect of perspective on people’s condition, I realize that the relationship nurses have with their patients is capable of great things. It is also an eye-opener that nurses and healthcare workers should be more conscious about our words and actions on patients. Health care workers can promote and uphold the dignity that each patient has by striving to influence patients’ perspective and turn it into positive ones that will enable them to become healthy.
Reflection on the overall state of health
If I am to decide about my position on the health-illness continuum, I will place myself in the middle, specifically the one labeled “normal health”. I have no grave illnesses, and I consider myself healthy, but I am aware of unhealthy habits that do not contribute to the maintenance of my health. Another aspect that influenced me to put in “normal” is because, in terms of my mental health and perspective, I am aware that there are moments that I tend to overthink and be negative, but this is something that I am continuously working on to further better myself and how I care for my patients including the other people around me.
Building habits is an important aspect when consciously taking care of your body, and one of the first steps is to identify which good behaviors to start or continue doing and which ones should be stopped. Examples of behaviors that I believe are detracting me from wellness are not getting enough sleep or sleeping late, not exercising or moving around as much, and frequently munching on junk foods. For good and positive behaviors, I am trying to drink 2 liters of water a day, keep a diary/journal for my mental health, and constantly wear sunscreen. These are just minimal changes, but these help build healthy habits in my life, one small aspect at a time.
Options and resources toward wellness
After identifying positive and negative behavior, it is important to know the direction where you want to go in terms of the health-illness continuum. From having normal health, I want to work on having high-level wellness, which takes commitment and dedication, but this is definitely worth the effort. To make a step towards wellness, I should start planning how I can effectively fix my sleeping schedule, exercise routine, and meal planning, then stick to the plan.
As a health care worker, I also believe that it is beneficial in the line of work to invest in yourself. This is a great opportunity to enable patients to talk and connect in a professional but deeper manner. This helps better the self while also improving in being a part of a healthcare team. The technical parts and skills of being a healthcare working are and will always be important. Still, another aspect that should not be forgotten is the heartfelt influence that healthcare workers can have on different people.
I have a lot of resources at my fingertips and from the people around me. I should use these opportunities to grow and learn how to become a health
Order this paper