Principles of Primary Health Care

This essay explores the principles of primary health care and the role of nurses in promoting health and preventing diabetes mellitus. It discusses how nurses can create supportive environments, build healthy public policies, develop personal skills, strengthen community action, and re-orient health services. The essay emphasizes the importance of health promotion strategies in addressing lifestyle diseases like diabetes mellitus.

Running head: PRINCIPLES OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE 1
PRINCIPLES OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

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Introduction
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder that occurs when the body cannot regulate the
amount of glucose in the blood (homeostasis of glucose levels) and characterized by high
glucose levels in the blood. Diabetes mellitus can be classified into four types namely, the
juvenile onset of diabetes which is insulin dependent (type 1), adult-onset which is non-insulin
dependent (type 11), gestational diabetes mellitus and diabetes mellitus of secondary causes such
as endocrinopathies. Type II, which is the main type of diabetes mellitus occurring after the age
of forty years, is caused by several factors, including genetic and lifestyle factors. Nurses play a
key role in health promotion strategies as identified in Ottawa charter for health promotion
regarding diabetes mellitus. The five principle health promotion strategies are, creating
supportive environments for health, build healthy public policy, develop personal skills,
strengthen community action for health and re-orient health services. This essay looks into how
nurses can use this strategy to facilitate people to enhance and improve control over their health
in regard to the control of diabetes.
Creating a supportive environment
Nurses have a role in creating a supportive environment to promote health in relations to
diabetes, which is a lifestyle disease. A supportive environment involves physical, social,
economic, and political context in regard to where people live (Silva Paraizo et al. 2018). Nurses
can play a role by educating people on what causes diabetes and how this can be reduced by the
creation of an enabling environment. Physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of diabetes
mellitus, and nurses can mitigate this by educating people on how physical activity helps
minimize the chances of diabetes due to sedimentary lifestyle. Encouraging people to walk to
work three or four days a week or cycling to work nurses helps them increase their physical

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activity, thereby reducing the risk of diabetes. Change in social activities that people engage in
helping them change their behavior, which greatly impacts on health. Nurses have a role to play
by encouraging participation in social activities such as football and basketball playing by
assisting in the formation of sports groups that people can join and participate in sports activities.
Lifestyle changes in terms of what people eat are basic to the prevention of diabetes, and nurses
have a role to play by education people what feeding lifestyles they can adapt to reduce risks of
diabetes mellitus among them (Mielgo-Ayuso et al. 2017).
Building healthy public policy
Building healthy public policy is fundamental to the reduction of diabetes mellitus, and
nurses have a key role to play in the policy-making process. Policies that affect people’s living
styles are important in the reduction of diabetes morbidity and its management (Doyle, Ward &
Early, 2018). Creation of programs that enable people to get genetic testing in families that have a
genetic predisposition to getting diabetes is vital to controlling diabetes. Nurses can play a role in
this by advising patients who have a history of diabetes mellitus in their families to encourage
their family members to visit the health facility and get genetic testing. Public policies that
encourage physical activity among people such building of bicycle paths along roads and in
towns and addition of mandatory physical exercise programs in schools. Nurses can play an
advisory role in the government during the making of these policies by offering expert advice to
government policymakers. A nutrition labeling policy will help in minimizing diabetes risk
factors associated with food (Seaborn et al. 2016). Nurses have a role to play by educating people
on nutrition linkages to diabetes mellitus, and changing their feeding lifestyles can help fight
diabetes mellitus. A government policy that requires the government to allocate a share of its
budget towards medical camps that educate people and test them for diabetes will help in

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combating diabetes. Nurse’s role in this policy is to create an awareness of these medical camps
and their importance to the people. People found to have diabetes mellitus during these camps
can be provided with medication, and those found to have high chances of getting diabetes
mellitus can be advised accordingly (Hakeem et al.2017).
Developing personal skills
Developing personal skills in health promotion means that health information is provided,
health education offered, and life skills enhanced. Health literacy is fundamental to the
development of personal skills among people, and this is achieved by availing health information
to people for them to have the required knowledge on diabetes mellitus (Maneze et al. 2016).
Nursing as health professionals, has a role in ensuring that people have equipped with diabetes
mellitus knowledge in various ways. Working together with government ministry in charge of
education to include health teachings such as diabetes mellitus in the education curriculum.
People can learn causes, symptoms, and prevention of diabetes mellitus in school enabling them
to make decisions in life based on this information and also help them identify possible cases
based on symptoms to help in early treatment (American Diabetes Association 2018). Nurses can
teach patients in health care facilities and organizing conferences through their working hospitals
to help them understand the link between their behavior and lifestyle diseases like diabetes
mellitus. People will then change their behaviors that increase the risks of diabetes mellitus and
adopt a lifestyle that best reduces these risks based on their knowledge of the disease.
Strengthening community action
Strengthening community action for health requires that the community is involved in
making decisions, planning, and implementation of health promotion strategies for diabetes
mellitus. It is important that community-based approaches that are aimed at reducing risks of

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diabetes mellitus engage the community and include them in the community level interventions
(Wold & Mittelmark, 2018). Nurse’s role in strengthening community action is based on the
understanding of the communities’ social and cultural aspects for them to engage the community.
Interventions that are cultural-sensitive should be developed by nurses in conjunction with
community officials to address cultural practices that are linked to diabetes mellitus. Cultural
practices like feeding habits of a community can be changed to mitigate diabetes mellitus by
nurses through helping them understand how their lifestyle is associated to diabetes mellitus and
how they can avoid it by changing their habits (De la Iglesia et al. 2016). Community-based health
facilities can be upgraded to offer a wider range of services, including diabetes screening by
nurses and create awareness among community members.
Re-orienting health services
Reorienting health services geared towards health promotion means that the
responsibility of health promotion is shared among health service institutions, health
professionals, and individuals to promote a health care system that contributes to the pursuit of
health (Thompson, Watson & Tilford, 2018). The health sector needs to change its focus from
curative to preventive services and health promotion. The roles played by nurses in this regard is
to educate people on the causes of diabetes mellitus and how they can be prevented. Reorienting
means that determinants of health and their respective impacts on health have to be recognized
and addressed to prevent diseases (Alotaibi et al. 2016). The Ottawa charter in regard to reorienting
health services calls upon nurses to be involved in health promotion programs that help avoid
diseases such as helping people engage in physical activities to avoid obesity which is a risk
factor for diabetes mellitus. Community partnership involvement in planning and
implementation of health services is increased under this strategy to come up with programs that

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best address their cultural and social needs within the frameworks set. Health care facilities
where the nurse's work has a major role to play in reorienting health services through the creation
of opportunities for them to learn more about preventing measures associated with diseases like
diabetes mellitus (Kardakis et al. 2013). Equipped with this knowledge, the nurses can then
educate their patients on the importance of preventing diseases like diabetes mellitus rather than
curing them.
Conclusion
Health promotion is important in health as it addresses individual involvement in their
health, making it person-centered care. To achieve health promotion among individuals or
communities, it is important that they understand what health means and its significance in
human life. Diabetes mellitus is one of the lifestyle diseases that can be reduced if people can
change the behaviors that contribute to the prevalence of diabetes among them. Behaviors such
as sedimentary lifestyle and eating of junk food contribute major risks of diabetes mellitus,
meaning they have to be addressed in health promotion strategies by nurses are primary
caregivers. These behaviors can be changed by the introduction of programs that promote
physical activity like playing football and riding bicycles to counter the sedimentary lifestyle and
promote healthy nutrition to eliminate junk food eating. Nurses play a key role in the success of
health promotion, and they need to be empowered to achieve these objectives.

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