Family Center
Nurse’s role and responsibility as a health educator
Nurses are essential personnel in healthcare as they are the primary care providers. Therefore, they are tasked with various roles and responsibilities, all aimed at improving the patients’ health conditions. One of the crucial elements of care provision is patient education on health matters. Health education is a core responsibility of nurses in various settings in the nation. It involves not only the provision of relevant information but also the facilitation of health-related behaviour changes. Nurses can apply the education principles to help the patients achieve good health outcomes in manners that are consistent with their lifestyles, values and beliefs. As health educators, nurses educate the people enabling them to make informed decisions about their healthcare and treatment, ways of health promotion, disease prevention and achieving peaceful death (Clark, 2017). They also provide health teaching and counselling based on the patient’s decision and interest.
family centerStrategies besides the use of learning styles that a nurse educator consider when developing tailored individual care plans or for educational programs in health promotion
Nurses are responsible for coordinating care for the individuals who require such care. This includes assessing the needs of each individual and developing strategies that will efficiently improve their states of health. These strategies help the nurse determine the individual’s readiness for health teaching, facilitating their behaviour change while facilitating their rights to know their health conditions and make appropriate decisions on the conditions and the preferred treatment. Nurse educators should first ensure that the patient can understand the information being given to them by assessing their levels of understanding. They should also inform the patients about the benefits of the entire education process to develop interest and eagerness to learn more (Gaberson & Oermann, 2016). Besides, the nurses should understand the patient’s cultural values, beliefs and practices so that the health education is in line with their cultural practices.
Behavioural objectives utilization in a care plan or health promotion
When providing care, behavioural objectives are provided to ensure the patients receive the best care. It provides guidelines on the best ways to take care of the patient while in the hospital or home. It is also important in health promotion as some behaviours are associated with certain morbidities. Therefore, change in these behaviours leads to a significant decrease in the cases, thus promoting health (Trudeau et al., 2019). Health education, therefore, is a crucial element in healthcare as it contributes significantly to the health outcomes of the patients when done appropriately.
References
Clark, G. E. (2017). The nurse as health educator: a study of reasoned action and self-efficacy. The University of Southern California.
Gaberson, K. B., & Oermann, M. (2016). Clinical teaching strategies in nursing. Springer publishing company.