Assignment | Role of the Nurse Practitioner as a Health Educator

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Role of the Nurse Practitioner as a Health Educator
Introduction
The rise of healthcare consumerism has influenced patient experience to shape the future of
healthcare and change the manner in which medical facilities operate. Moreover, there has
been an emphasis on the multiple interactions with patients by several health workers during
hospital stays. However, nurses have remained to be in the frontline of all patient
engagements. Patient education has been found to be one of the most significant elements in
nurse engagements (D’Agostino et al., 2017). The need for patient education has recently
been the focus in preventive care because of the increase in chronic illnesses such as cancer,
diabetes, high blood pressure etc., (CDC, 2017) which can effectively be prevented and
decrease the rates of hospital readmissions. Since nurses are the ones in constant engagement
with patients, the responsibility of being health educators has substantially been left to them.
This expository essay seeks to explore the role of a nurse practitioner as a health educator.
A nurse practitioner (NP) is a registered nurse, trained and accredited to work independently
and collaboratively in an advanced and extended clinical role (O’Connell & Gardner, 2012).
In the US, nurse practitioners can diagnose, treat and prescribe in all states (Naylor &
Kurtzman, 2010). Studies have shown that nurse role as a health educator can increase
efficacy, optimize resources, increase patient access to medications and enable the NP to
provide adequate, prompt, and all-inclusive care packages (Cashin, Buckley, Newman, &
Dunn, 2009). The role of the nurse practitioner as a health educator is central to the work of
nurses, and these include facilitator and clinical leader for patient and family education and
assessing patient’s motivation and desire for wellness. Other primary roles are fostering
patients’ confidence in their own abilities, help patients’ access to support groups and
systems and assist patients and families find relevant and helpful information

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The nurse practitioner is a facilitator and clinical leader for patient and family education. The
ANA reports that the registered nurse works to develop strategies that foster health and a safe
environment (Kane, 2015). The NP plays the role of a health educator by providing health
training on areas such as healthy lifestyles, risk-reducing behaviours, and general preventive
self-care. Furthermore, the nurse practitioner also utilizes health promotion and health
teaching techniques relevant to the situation and the values, beliefs, capacity to learn, and
socioeconomic status of the patients. Nurse practitioners are tasked with the responsibility of
developing basic competency on providing education to patients and families. As result
nurses are expected to understand the educational process, coordinate care, and strengthen the
partnerships between families and patients.
NPs also act as health educators by examining patient’s motivation and desire for wellness.
The patient-centred approach not only focus on the treatment of the diseases but also about
the interests and desire of the patient. This, therefore, prompts the NP to first assess the
motivation and the desire for the wellness of the patient in order to help map out the goals
and strategies for providing patient education. During diagnosis, the background history of
the patient or family relevant to the diseases is obtained. This gives the NP insight into self-
awareness and expectations of the patient, and help to clarify the assistance due to him or her.
Having understood the patient’s knowledge of the disease, the cause and situation
surrounding the illness of the patient, the NP goes ahead to offer appropriate information on
preventive care (Zulkosky, 2009). This educates the patient on the possible preventive care
and self-care.
The study by Zulkosky (2009) found out that patient engagements with nurses and their
ultimate role as a health educator are significantly dependent on self-reflection and
motivation of the patients. The ability to negotiate is fundamentally determined by the

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learner’s capacity to accurately reflect and assess and is also vital for self-controlled learning.
According to King et al. (2010), self-reflection consists of emotional responses and
physiological pointers (e.g. heart rate) to make appropriate decisions. On the side of patients,
self-reflection is the process of ascertaining whether they have the ability or desire to execute
assigned tasks. A nurse practitioner plays a critical role as a mentor and providing
opportunities to ensure that this vital learning process is successful. Additionally, the
learner’s motivation is important because it determines the patient’s adherence to treatment
plans. Hence, the reason why the NP endeavours to determine the patient’s motivation while
playing the role of a health educator.
The NP also plays a health educator role by fostering patients’ confidence in their own
abilities. During the process of diagnosis, the NP seeks to understand all necessary
information surrounding the patient and the disorder. Then the nurse uses the gathered
information to help build confidence in the patients that they can manage and maintain their
health needs. This is important because a patient might have undervalued his efficacy, and
may be in possession of vital knowledge but is not aware of it. The patient is likely to suggest
the challenges for preventing successful self-care during the engagement, and thus the NP
works towards helping such under-confident patients through providing daily goals, model
positive mood, and monitor and provide feedback (King et al., 2010).
NPs also provide patients access to support groups and systems through social persuasion by
directly connecting with the patients or caregivers after being discharged from the hospital.
Bandura, 1986 asserts that by updating the caregivers or informing the patients of the risky
behaviours to avoid and cherish healthful practices after treatment, they play a significant role
of a health educator in the prevention and minimizing future hospital admissions.

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Furthermore, NPs also use peers as a way of instilling motivating the patient to follow-up on
their guidelines towards healthful living (Hoving, Visser, Mullen, & van den Borne, 2010).
Nurse practitioners also help patients and families find relevant and helpful information for
their healthcare. With the upsurge in communication technology, there exist several sources
of information on healthcare, however, not all sources are valid. Studies have indicated that
wrong information on medication and diagnosis is one of the leading cause of death and
disability. Koch-Weser, Bradshaw, Gualtieri, and Gallagher, (2010) conducted a survey on
the use of the internet as a source of health information and its implication. The authors found
that over 40% of the patients who research their health problems before their appointment
with NPs ended up being misinformed. Moreover, the rampant promotional adverts excite the
patients who end up being motivated in the wrong direction. Nurse practitioners also help the
patients and carers in the search and recommendation of reputable sources (Marshall,
Dall’Oglio, Davis, Verret, & Tere, 2015).
Nurse practitioners have therefore critical roles as health educators in addition to the fact that
they interact with patients more than any other healthcare professionals. NPs need to possess
negotiation skills and be ready and willing to learn and adapt to the shifting paradigm so as to
become effective. Based on their responsibilities as health educators, they function to
observe, identify, promote and ensure the healthcare services are patient-centred and of high
quality. In other words, a nurse practitioner role as a health educator shapes the healthcare
system.

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References
Kane, C. (2015). The 2014 scope and standards of practice for psychiatric mental health
nursing: Key updates. Online journal of issues in nursing, 20(1)..
Cashin, A. J., Buckley, T., Newman, C., & Dunn, S. V. (2009). Nurse practitioner provision
of patient education related to medicine. Australian Journal of Advanced
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Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2017). Gateway to Health
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D’Agostino, T. A., Atkinson, T. M., Latella, L. E., Rogers, M., Morrissey, D., DeRosa, A. P.,
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Hoving, C., Visser, A., Mullen, P. D., & van den Borne, B. (2010). A history of patient
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King, D. K., Glasgow, R. E., Toobert, D. J., Strycker, L. A., Estabrooks, P. A., Osuna, D., &
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753.

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Koch-Weser, S., Bradshaw, Y. S., Gualtieri, L., & Gallagher, S. S. (2010). The Internet as a
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