NCM 102 - Health Education Notes

HEALTH EDUCATION

Week 1: Historical Development in Health Education

Definition of Health Education
  • Health education encompasses any combination of learning experiences designed to facilitate voluntary adaptations of behavior conducive to health.
  • It is both a science and a profession focused on teaching health concepts. The goal is to promote, maintain, and enhance one’s health and prevent illness, disability, and premature death through the adoption of healthy behaviors, attitudes, and perspectives.
  • Health education draws from various scientific disciplines, including biological, environmental, psychological, physical, medical, and paramedical sciences like nursing.
Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion Terminology (2001) Definition
  • Health education is any combination of planned learning experiences. These experiences are based on sound theories and provide individuals, groups, and communities the opportunity to acquire the information and skills needed to make quality health decisions.
WHO Definition of Health Education
  • Health education comprises consciously constructed opportunities for learning. This involves communication designed to improve health literacy, including enhancing knowledge and developing life skills, which are conducive to individual and community health.
Purpose of Health Education
  • To positively influence the health behavior and health perspectives of individuals and communities.
  • To develop self-efficacy in individuals, enabling them to adopt healthy lifestyles, which in turn results in healthy communities.
  • Creates awareness regarding the importance of preventive and promotive care, thereby avoiding or reducing medical treatment or hospitalization costs.
  • Enhances the quality of life by promoting healthy lifestyles.
  • Equips people with the knowledge and competencies to prevent illness, maintain health, or apply first aid measures to prevent complications or premature deaths.
  • Improves the health status of individuals, families, communities, states, and the nation.
  • Empowers people to decide for themselves what options to choose to enhance their quality of life.
Legal Basis of Health Education in the Nursing Curriculum
  • According to the Philippine Nursing Act (RA 9173), Rule IV, Art. VI, Sec 28, nurses have a duty to provide health education to individuals, families, and communities.
  • Nurses also teach, guide, and supervise students in nursing education.
  • They implement programs, including the administration of nursing services, in varied settings like hospitals and clinics.
Functions of a Professional Health Educator
  1. Assess individual and community needs and capabilities. Identify both internal and external resources in the community.
  2. Plan, develop, and coordinate with different health and government agencies and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) regarding health education programs.
  3. Engage in community organizing and outreach.
  4. Conduct staff training and consult with other health care providers about behavioral, cultural, or social barriers to health.
  5. Conduct regular periodic evaluations of health education programs.
  6. Make referrals.
  7. Develop audio, visual, print, and electronic materials for training and health education classes.
  8. Conduct research work and write scholarly articles.
The Role of the Health Educator
  • A health educator is a professionally prepared individual. They serve in varied roles and are specifically trained to use appropriate educational strategies and methods.
  • Their role is to facilitate the development of policies, procedures, interventions, and systems conducive to the health of individuals, groups, and communities.
  • The primary goal is to help promote, enhance, and maintain the health of others.
Seven Areas of Responsibility of a Health Educator (NCHEC, 1996)

Based on the Competency Based Framework for the Professional Development of Certified Health Education Specialists, these areas include:

  1. Assess individual and community needs for health education.
  2. Plan health education strategies, interventions, and programs.
  3. Communicate and advocate for health and health education.
  4. Implement health education strategies, interventions, and programs.
  5. Administer health education strategies, interventions, and programs.
  6. Conduct evaluation and research in relation to health education.
  7. Serve as a health education resource person.
The Teaching of Health Education

A comprehensive health education curriculum consists of planned learning experiences. These experiences help students achieve desirable attitudes and practices related to critical health issues, such as:

  1. Emotional health and positive self-image
  2. Appreciation and care of the human body and its vital organs
  3. Physical fitness
  4. Health issues of alcohol, tobacco, drug use, and abuse
  5. Health misconceptions and myths
  6. Effects of exercise on the body’s systems and general well-being
  7. Nutrition and weight control
  8. Sexual relationships and sexuality
  9. The scientific, social, and economic aspects of community and ecological health
  10. Communicable and degenerative diseases, including sexually transmitted infections
  11. Disaster preparedness
  12. Safety and driver education
  13. Environmental factors and how those factors affect an individual’s or population’s environmental health, life skills, choosing professional medical and health services, and health career choices.
Code of Ethics of the Society for Public Health Education Inc. (SOPHE)
  • Health educators take on profound responsibilities in using educational processes to promote health and influence well-being.
Code of Ethics (Unabridged Version), Society for Public Health Education, Inc. Article IV
  • Deals with the responsibility in employing educational strategies and methods.
  • States that educators should be aware of their possible impact on the community and other health professionals and must not place the burden of change solely on the target population but must involve other appropriate groups to bring about effective change.
Characteristics of Effective Health Education (Hubley)
  1. Directed at people who are directly involved with health-related situations and issues in the home and the community.
  2. Lessons are repeated and reinforced over time using different methods.
  3. Lessons are adaptable and use existing channels of communication (songs, drama, storytelling).
  4. Entertaining and attracts the community’s attention.
  5. Uses clear, simple language with local expressions.
  6. Emphasizes short-term benefits of action.
  7. Provides opportunities for dialogue, discussion, and learner participation and feedback.
  8. Uses demonstrations to show the benefits of adopting the practices.
Relationship between Health Education and Health Promotion

The primary role of health educators is to develop appropriate health education programs in consultation with the people they serve through:

  • Planning
  • Implementing
  • Evaluating the health plans/programs.
Steps in Developing a Health Education/Promotion Program (Cottrell et al. 2001)
  1. Assessing needs of the target population
  2. Developing appropriate goals and objectives
  3. Creating an intervention that considers the peculiarities of the setting
  4. Implementing the intervention
  5. Evaluating the results
Learning Activity
  • Define health education and explain its importance in health promotion and maintenance.