The Role of Nurses in Health Promotion and Nutrition

This article discusses the role of nurses in promoting health and wellbeing through nutrition. It highlights the importance of good nutrition in maintaining physical and mental health and preventing chronic diseases. The article also emphasizes the need for nurses to provide accurate information to patients regarding healthy dietary patterns and to call for greater health promotion.

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Introduction
Health promotion is a behavior encouraged by the desire to achieve maximum health potential
and wellbeing. Wellbeing is about involving oneself in behavior and attitudes that build up
potential and quality of life. Nurses have a role in promoting health and wellbeing of individuals
by modeling the behaviors and attitudes of the patients towards a healthy lifestyle (Blake and
Harrison, 2013). They guide and educate clients on solving problems and decision-making. They
teach them strategies to improve nutrition and fitness, stress management and relationships
(Kemppainen, Tossavainen and Turunen, 2013). Nurses also have a role of assisting and
advocating for changes that promote health to the patients and the community (Blake and
Harrison, 2013).
Health is that state of complete wellness in physical, mental and social factors. It is not just about
the absence of disease (Huber, et al, 2011). Either most individuals define health at a personal
level with regard to their ability to undertake their daily activities, how they feel and the presence
or absence of symptoms aligned to illnesses (Chinn, 2011). Illness can be defined as the state of
feeling unhealthy that can or cannot be associated with a disease. Health and illness are a
continuum where people move to and from day by day (Chinn, 2011). Wider or social
determinants of health are social, economic and environmental factors that are influenced by the
distribution of power and resources locally, nationally and internationally (Marmot, et al, 2012).
Diet refers to the kind of food and drinks consumed daily by an individual and the physical and
mental state connected to consumption. Proper nutrition involves family, friends, our bodies and
the environment. It requires nourishment at all the levels (Jefferies, Johnson and Ravens, 2011).
Healthy eating has benefits in sleep quality, skin maintenance, body weight and mental

wellbeing. It helps lower the risks of chronic conditions of health. The food consumed helps in
metabolic processes and health promotion. It acts as medicine for maintaining, preventing, and
treating disease (Jefferies, Johnson and Ravens, 2011). This is enabled by good food choices.
Poor diets have negative effects that are long-term.
There is a call for both healthcare professionals and the society to focus on diet for a healthy
living. With the recent trends in health and wellbeing, some of the dangerous diseases globally
are directly linked to dieting and nutrition. Nutrition is about adequate food and supply
(McGuire, 2016). Deficiencies in essential nutrients hurt the body. According to WHO, there is a
global epidemic of obesity which starts in childhood and other diet-related diseases like diabetes,
heart disease, and cancer that are affecting millions of people (McGuire, 2016). Nutrition is
important for all age groups. Good nutrition is essential for health and wellbeing and should start
with young children for the best outcome in physical and mental development.
Nurses screen and assess malnutrition in patients within 24 hours upon admission in the hospital.
This helps in determining those at risk of malnutrition (Jefferies, Johnson and Ravens, 2011).
The patients are assessed on nutrition to enable a proper care plan on nutrition by the nurses.
Nurses come up with nutrition goals and interventions to help patients regain health. The
interventions include; provision of oral supplements to the patient, optimizing the oral intake,
and giving enteral and parenteral nutrition (Jefferies, Johnson and Ravens, 2011). They play a
key role of implementing the interventions. Consumption of a healthy diet that is balanced
together with regular exercises maintains physical and mental health and overall wellness
(Whitton et al, 2011). Obesity figures are high and are deemed to rise further due to an
imbalance of energy input and output. People spend more time while sited indoors, watching

television, and in public transport. In Western Europe, UK is leading with obesity and
overweight with men accounting for 67% and women 57% (Whitton et al, 2011).
Nurses are knowledgeable, and it is their responsibility to ensure that the nutritional needs of the
patients and clients are met (Kemppainen, Tossavainen and Turunen, 2013). They have a role in
providing nutrition screening and nutrition advice that is appropriate to enable healthy eating and
good health outcomes (Dudek, 2013). Non-communicable diseases are linked with modifiable
risk factors of physical inactivity, too much consumption of alcohol, tobacco use, and unhealthy
diet. Nurses maintain optimal nutrition by clearly identifying problems associated with nutrition,
assessing the patient's nutrition status, come up with diet plans and offer counseling on special
diet modification to the patients (Dudek, 2013). For example, nurses can advocate for
consumption of fruits, vegetables, fish, legumes, and cereals to reduce chances of cancer and
dementia in advanced age (Edelman, Mandle and Kudzma, 2017). They can also advice on low
salt and fat intake to counter the risk of hypertension and cancer. Unlike other health
professionals, nurses have frequent contact with patients and often initiate referrals, nutrition
screening and also facilitate and recommend adjustments on diet plan while putting in place a
modified special diet for the patients (Dudek, 2013). Older adults are prone to chronic illnesses.
Nurses can use chronic care approaches and interventions to help them maximize their health
outcomes.
Nutrition assessment followed by proper lifestyle advice and good referral system offers a long-
term change in behavior positively. Aging affects nutrition needs and often make people
malnourished. Nurses can help malnourished patients by coming up with care strategies in
dieting to prevent further malnutrition (Edelman, Mandle and Kudzma, 2017). They have an
understanding of nutrition basics, and it is their mandate to explain to the patients the important

facts about healthy food choices (Kemppainen, Tossavainen and Turunen, 2013). With the rise of
diseases related to diet, nurses need to provide accurate information to the patients regarding
healthy dietary patterns that can prevent them. They can call upon the larger inter-professional
team of physiotherapists, registered nutritionists, dieticians, and personal trainers to ensure
personalized healthcare is achieved (Edelman, Mandle and Kudzma, 2017). Individuals can be
allocated to local services that promote healthy living like participating in group exercises,
cooking and other activities that enable good health outcomes. Nurses can encourage individuals
to identify the activities they love to facilitate change.
Conclusion
Being in good health is essential to everyone. Either illnesses or ill health cause one not to feel
well. Nurses play a crucial role in health promotion. They advocate, enable and mediate for all
necessary measures to enable good healthcare outcome. The environment does not fully enable
individuals to make choices that are healthier easily. Among the leading causes of non-
communicable diseases are unhealthy diets accompanied by lack of physical activities. All these
contribute to disease burden globally. It is the role of nurses to call for greater health promotion
and offer safe, personalized lifestyle advice that is effective.

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