Assignment | Role of the Nurse Practitioner as a Health Educator

Running head: Nursing 1
Nursing
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Nursing 2
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

Nursing 3
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