Role of Nurses in Preventing Obesity in Pakenham Community

This essay discusses the role of nurses in preventing obesity in the Pakenham community and how the Ottawa charter's five strategic actions can be used. It explores the challenges of obesity in Pakenham, the importance of nurses in promoting awareness and prevention, and the strategies outlined in the Ottawa charter. The essay emphasizes the need for a healthy public policy, supportive environments, community action, personal skills development, and reorienting health services to combat obesity.

Running Head: Primary Health Care
Primary Health Care
Essay
System04104
9/25/2018

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Introduction
A large number of people are suffering from obesity in all over the world. Obesity is a
complex problem that involves an excessive amount of body fat in people/patients. Obesity
causes many health related problems in the body such as heart disease, Asthma, diabetes,
high blood pressure etc. It is a major health concern for the whole world and we can say that
Pakenham is the capital of obesity in Australia. This report is based on the Pakenham
community where large numbers of people are fighting with obesity. This work explains the
role of nurses and their contribution to prevent obesity in Pakenham community. To prevent
such diseases and promote healthcare awareness among people, “The Ottawa charter” was
created by the World Health Organisation (W.H.O) in November 1986, in Ottawa, Canada. It
was the first international conference on ‘Health Promotion’. The main objective behind this
charter was “health for all.” The charter mainly focuses on the importance of the socio-
environmental approach to achieve better health for people. This report examines the role of
nurses that how they can help the people in Pakenham to fight with obesity under the Ottawa
charter's five strategic actions. This report includes how nurses can promote awareness about
obesity and playing a key role in prevention against such type of diseases.
Obesity in Pakenham Community
Pakenham is a big populous community in Melbourne. In Pakenham, excessive
weight and fat-related health problem are the major health concerns for those people who are
not suffering from any other health problems. The number of females reporting being obese
is among the highest in the community. Obesity in children is also a major concern in the
Pakenham community. Although obesity is a challenging problem in this community along
with mental illness but people are still facing problems and ignoring the importance of proper
dieting and exercise. Weight management is a complicated process and it is more challenging
for the people (Havrankova, 2012). Obesity is a primary risk factor for other diseases such as
Type 2 diabetes (Atkinson, 2014). It can be said that obesity is not a small problem that is
limited to a particular community rather it is a serious problem for each community in all
over the world.
Here, we will discuss the role of nurses in removing obesity from Pakenham and how
the five actions plan of Ottawa charter can help nurses in removing obesity. It will be also

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discussed in this essay that how nurses can spread awareness among people about Obesity in
the community.
Five Strategies of the Ottawa Charter Plan to control Obesity
The Ottawa charter plan includes five strategic plans that can be used by nurses to reduce
health-related problems such as mental illness, obesity, diabetes etc. in all over the world.
The Ottawa health promotion program focuses on health problem as well as it focuses on
other disorders like obesity. Nurses can use this five-action strategic plan to fight with obesity
in Pakenham and aware people how they can take proper exercise, medical care, and proper
diet to fight against obesity. These steps and strategies can be described in the following sub-
heads:
1. Build a Healthy Public policy
The main objective of the Ottawa charter is to develop a policy that helps in removing
various health concerns from the global community (World Health Organisation, 2018). The
main objective behind this policy is to find out the reasons that cause of the various diseases
such as mental stress, obesity, alcoholism in young people etc. and how these problems can
be resolved.
Creating and implementing an effective health policy can help the community to fight
with obesity. A good government health policy can help in reducing obesity in people by
implementing various weight-loss management programs. The government can organise
various weight-loss management programs in schools, colleges, and universities for those
students and youths who are suffering from obesity (Steele, Wu, Jensen, Pankey, Davis, &
Aylward, 2011). The government can make it compulsory for every school and colleges to
schedule various exercise and physical fitness programs as a prevention program against
obesity. Apart from this, the various healthcare centres and weight management centres can
also assist people by providing proper suggestions about obesity (Bonde, Bentsen, &
Hindhede, 2014). These healthcare centres aware people how they can lose their weight with
proper exercise and proper dieting. Nurses can play an important role in the formulation of
policies regarding the prevention of obesity and weight-loss management. Nurses can also act
as a mediator between parents and teachers to examine the health status of young people.
Nurses can promote the effective health policy in the Pakenham by providing suggestions and

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persuade people that how they can prevent obesity in children and other people in the
community.
2. Create Supportive Environments
Obesity not only invites other health problems rather it also causes several other problems
such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, laziness because of heavy weight, problems in
breathing, and even people cannot move one place to other places easily. A strong and
effective public health policy in society assists in creating a supportive health environment
that educates and aware of obesity free life. According to a research, those people who are
suffering from obesity, feeling depress and taking mental pressure because they feel that they
cannot do anything because of their heavy weight (Lumeng, Castle, & Lumeng, 2010).
Obesity causes depression in people. Here, a nurse can play a vital role in the Pakenham
community. A nurse can help both a person who is suffering from obesity and their parents to
take cares about such type of conditions and educate people that how they can help children
in the weight loss program. They can also educate the society that how they can be physical
and mentally fit and avoid obesity by taking proper exercise and participating in various
weight-loss management programs.
3. Strengthen Community Action
Community plays an important role in fighting with any healthcare problem. Thus, the
role of a community against fighting with obesity is very important. The community as a
whole is a more influential factor in comparison to individuals because a community can
inspire a large number of people (Nolan, Deehan, Wylie, & Jones, 2012). The success of the
Ottawa charter depends on how people in a community consider problems and takes pre-
emptive actions against the obesity disorder. Nurses can help the community to launch
different campaign and awareness programs in schools, colleges, and universities and aware
the people that how they can prevent the obesity and aware other people about it (Lazarou &
Kouta, 2010). Nurses can educate the society about the possible causes behind obesity. They
can also aware community people that how it can be removed from our society (Kushner,
2010). A large population in Pakenham is facing obesity and mentally depress and lose their
confidence because they feel that they could not be able to do anything. Thus, here the role of
a nurse is very important because they can strengthen the community against the obesity
problem and tell them how they can prevent this disease.

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4. Develop Personal Skills
This is one of the most important strategic actions in Ottawa charter that determines the
way of the success of ‘health promotion programs’ and focuses on developing personal skills
among people (Wang, McLoone, & Morrison, 2015). If people can handle the problem
through their own skills and inner power, then it will be great in fighting with any disease.
Those people who are mentally and physically fit and having good command over their own
daily routine and take proper diet and exercise can easily prevent obesity. Thus, it is
necessary to develop skills in those people who have no idea about this problem and not even
doing exercise or yoga kind of thing in their life. Exercise and Yoga are two major factors
that can help in the prevention of obesity in any community (Devkota, & Layman, 2010).
Nurses can help people to develop personal skills to control and manage the stress of work
life and daily life and take proper sleep at night. Thus, the role of self-development is a key
thing in the prevention of obesity along with the role of nurses and the community
(Bodenheimer & Bauer, 2016). The role of parents is also important in the prevention of
obesity because if parents educate and aware the child about the importance of proper dieting,
the importance of exercise and yoga, they can prevent obesity in children.
5. Reorient Health Services
Reorient healthcare is an important aspect of healthcare promotion. Reorient healthcare
ensures that nurses do the things in right ways and assure people that Obesity can be removed
from the community if they follow certain guidelines and precautions (Rickwood, 2011).
Nurses can play an important role in reorient healthcare services and by increasing
participation of community people (i.e. parents, young people, school/colleges/universities,
doctors, hospitals, medical counsellors etc.) in planning and implementing health services.
Nurses can aware people that how they can control the problem. They can also increase the
public access to all information related to obesity, which is necessary for decision-making.
Nurses can also aware the people about the barriers and problems which enables people to
face the challenges of obesity.
Conclusion
Ottawa convention is known for its initiative in health promotion activities in all over
the world. Obesity is one of the major concerns in healthcare all over the world. In this type
of diseases precautions and prevention is a major trick to avoid it. If nurses follow the Ottawa

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charter and play a role of counsellor for people about obesity, this disease can be avoided in
Pakenham community. If nurses can work with parents and society, unite them, and persuade
them about the benefits of exercise and proper diet, the community can easily avoid and
prevent obesity from the community.

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References
Atkinson, R. L. (2014). Current status of the field of obesity. Trends in Endocrinology &
Metabolism, 25(6), 283-284.
Bodenheimer, T., & Bauer, L. (2016). Rethinking the primary care workforce—an expanded
role for nurses. New England Journal of Medicine, 375(11), 1015-1017.
Bonde, A. H., Bentsen, P., & Hindhede, A. L. (2014). School nurses’ experiences with
motivational interviewing for preventing childhood obesity. The Journal of School
Nursing, 30(6), 448-455.
Devkota, S., & Layman, D. K. (2010). Protein metabolic roles in treatment of
obesity. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care, 13(4), 403-407.
Havrankova, J. (2012). Is the treatment of obesity futile?: YES. Canadian Family
Physician, 58(5), 508-510.
Kushner, R. F. (2010). Tackling obesity: is primary care up to the challenge?. Archives of
internal medicine, 170(2), 121-123.
Lazarou, C., & Kouta, C. (2010). The role of nurses in the prevention and management of
obesity. British Journal of Nursing, 19(10), 641-647.
Lumeng, J. C., Castle, V. P., & Lumeng, C. N. (2010). The role of pediatricians in the
coordinated national effort to address childhood obesity. Pediatrics, 126(3), 574-575.
Nolan, C., Deehan, A., Wylie, A., & Jones, R. (2012). Practice nurses and obesity:
professional and practice-based factors affecting role adequacy and role
legitimacy. Primary health care research & development, 13(4), 353-363.
Steele, R. G., Wu, Y. P., Jensen, C. D., Pankey, S., Davis, A. M., & Aylward, B. S. (2011).
School nurses' perceived barriers to discussing weight with children and their
families: a qualitative approach. Journal of School Health, 81(3), 128-137.
Wang, Z., McLoone, P., & Morrison, D. S. (2015). Diet, exercise, obesity, smoking and
alcohol consumption in cancer survivors and the general population: a comparative
study of 16 282 individuals. British journal of cancer, 112(3), 572.

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World Health Organisation (2018). The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion First
International Conference on Health Promotion, Ottawa, 21 November 1986.
Retrieved from:
http://www.ngos4healthpromotion.net/wordpressa4hp/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/
OttawaCharter.pdf