Health Literacy and Osteoarthritis: An Educative Care Plan for Irim

NURSING
Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................2
BODY...........................................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................14
1

INTRODUCTION
Health education can be explained as the process of promoting and educating people about health.
According to World Health Organization, health education can be defined as “consciously constructed
opportunities for learning involving some form of communication designed to improve health literacy,
including improving knowledge, and developing life skills which are conducive to individual and
community health.” Health education is important as it focuses on physical, social, mental and emotional
health. It helps individuals to improve their health, reduce risks or in preventing certain diseases. As given
in the case study, Irim is suffering from the knee problem and is not able to perform her everyday
activities. She has been diagnosed with osteoarthritis and is advised either to lose her weight or go for a
knee replacement surgery. In this assignment, along with health education, its importance has also been
discussed. An educative care plan has been given in this assignment for IRIM, which will help her to
improve her condition (Beauchamp, 2014).
2

BODY
In today’s health industry, health promotion is the key element of health care. Prevention of diseases and
promoting healthy living has become the priority in health care. Health promotion, development of
various strategies, overcoming barriers has become an important part of nursing practice. Nurses have
now flourished in the areas of practice, education, research and methodology for promoting health.
Promoting disease prevention has become more important rather than its curing in healthcare. Previously,
nurses used to teach patients about how to cure current illness. But nowadays, nursing focuses on
promoting healthy lifestyle and prevention of diseases. The focus is on healthy future. To do this, nurses
must have knowledge about the diseases and treatment, so that they can guide the patient and community
as well.The nurses must also be educated about evidence-based practice and ways to guide patients as
well as their family members. Nurses play an important role in guiding the individuals, families and the
society about health. Nurses must be aware of the theories, practices and models (Wittenberg, 2018).
They must be able to evaluate the effectiveness of their guidance and be able to redesign their method to
reach an outcome. As awareness about the benefits of the healthy lifestyle would increase among the
people, community wellness will also improve. For the implementation of such changes, the delivery of
information must be appropriate and adequate. Nurses must be trained to deliver health education
adequately and must be able to overcome the barriers coming in between the process. Learning about
cultural diversity and learning practices will help in educating patients from different communities. There
are various agencies which set the standards for the nurses like Registered Nurses standards for practice
or National Competency standards of the midwife. National competency standards for registered nurses
3

was first followed by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council. This was developed to set national
standards for registered nurses and to help them deliver quality care. Certain standards which are
necessary to be followed by the registered nurses or midwives are as follows (French, 2015).
 Recognizes the responsibility to prevent harm
 Provides information and education required to enhance people’s control over health
 Maintains current knowledge and incorporates relevant professional standards into practice
 Facilitates and encourages people in making health-related decisions
 Facilitates coordination of care to achieve agreed health outcomes
Health literacy can be defined as the social and cognitive skills which help in determining the ability and
motivation of people to acquire, understand and use the knowledge in ways which help in promoting and
maintaining healthy living. Health literacy is more than just reading boards and making clinical
appointments. People must have the knowledge of improving their health. They must use such
information effectively. This will lead to empowerment. Health literacy is beyond educating about health
and behaviour-oriented interaction with individuals. It is associated with the social, political and
environmental factors that determine health. Health education is comprehensive learning. It aims at
influencing health-related decisions, creating awareness about determinants of health. The collective
action can lead to modifications in the determinants of health. Health education is not only sharing
information about health, but it also includes interaction, critical analysis and participation of the
individual (White, 2016). Health literacy is promoted by such health education and there are personal as
well as social benefits of it. Health literacy is an important criterion to be considered while promoting
4