Health Promotion about Diabetes Mellitus: A Nurse's Perspective

This essay examines the critical role of nurses in promoting health for individuals with diabetes mellitus, focusing on the application of the Ottawa Charter's five key strategies: building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community actions, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services. The essay emphasizes the rising prevalence of diabetes and its connection to lifestyle factors, highlighting how nurses can influence policy, provide care, educate patients, and foster community initiatives to prevent and manage the condition effectively. The essay also explores the significance of ethical practices, ongoing professional development, and research in enhancing diabetes care and health promotion.

Running head: HEALTH PROMOTION ABOUT DIABETES MELLITUS
Health Promotion about Obesity
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Health Promotion about Diabetes Mellitus
Introduction
For individuals to be able to take maximum care of themselves when it comes
to health, it is necessary that they be appropriately equipped. When individuals are
enabled to take are of themselves, the result is healthy communities and
populations. The process of enabling/equipping persons with skills necessary to
maintain the highest possible health care practices is referred to as health care
promotion (Edelman, Mandle and Kudzma, 2017). This promotion is a main concern
of the international community. Various factors interact together to influence health. It
follows therefore that if optimal health were to be obtained and maintained, then all
the necessary factors should be considered. Ottawa charter on health promotion was
an initiative by the international community to devise effective ways of promoting
healthcare. It was guided by the knowledge that such promotion was essential if the
goal of having every individual enjoying optimal health from the year 2000 and
beyond were to be achieved. The charter builds one some other international health
agreements such as the alma matter declaration and the international entitlement of
every person to the highest attainable physical and mental wellbeing. The charter
identified five main strategies that can be used to effectively achieve health
promotion. Diabetes mellitus is a condition that involves impaired sugar metabolism.
It involves a situation where the liver is not producing insulin at all, producing it in
insufficient quantities or the body is not receptive to the insulin produced (Atlas,
2015). The result is an elevated blood sugar which can lead to complications if not
managed (Rewers and Ludvigsson, 2016). The condition is on the rise. It was
chosen in this case due to the alarming increase in the number of cases and its
attribution to lifestyle factors. This essay is going to discuss the role of the nurse in
using the five main strategies identified in the Ottawa charter to promote health
about diabetes mellitus.
Build healthy Public Policy
The aim of this strategy is to ensure that the policy makers have consider
health in every policy they make. This applies to the policy making by all sectors and
at all levels (Eldredge, Markham and Ruiter, 2016). It is necessary that such policies
consider any health implications and ensure that as much as possible the policies
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promote health. One might wonder what role a nurse can play in this, but they can
play several roles. Some nurses are involved in the formulation of policies. Since
they are health professional they should be able to offer appropriate advice to make
sure that the policy favours promotion of health. An example would be advising that
less tax be healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables and more tax be imposed on
sugar. This is because excessive consumption of sugar has been implicated in
diabetes mellitus while a health diet has been shown to reduce the risk for the
disease. A higher tax would mean less purchasing and a lower tax would potentially
lead to higher purchases (Duckett and Willcox, 2015). The nurse could also take a
personal initiative of forming an organization that calls for healthy public policy and
mobilizing support. This support should come from persons of different sectors to
maximize chances of success.
Create Supportive Environments
The environment of an individual inevitably affects their ability to achieve and
maintain optimal health. For instance, there are higher chances of disease outbreaks
developing in a region where there are poor water and sanitation standards. On the
other hand, health care is likely to be optimal in a region where there are plenty of
health facilities (Whitney and Rolfes, 2018). The nurse can play some role in creating
a supportive environment. One way is through offering health services at the
healthcare facility. By so doing, the nurse enables the diabetes mellitus receive
quality care. This improves their quality of life and longevity. Apart from the curative
aspects of the disease, a nurse can also create a supportive environment that
ensures preventive measures are in place. This would include having some
information leaflets about diabetes in her office and issuing them to clients who visit.
Strengthening Community Actions
This stipulates that to effectively achieve success in healthcare promotion, it is
necessary that the members of a community come together and confront the health
challenges that they might be facing. For instance, if in a certain community there is
vast use of tobacco, the community can together agree on strategies to minimise
this. For that to happen, the community must become aware of the potential dangers
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of smoking tobacco not only to the smoker but to those around. Once, they
appreciate this this they can come to a common agreement. Research has shown
that community actions are very effective. The nurse can contribute to the health
promotion about diabetes through this strategy. This can be done through equipping
people with education about the risk factors for and management of diabetes. Such a
move could be done through organized community health campaigns. Once the
community understands the environmental factors that contributes to diabetes
mellitus and prevention strategies, they might come together and make decisions
that are for the common good (American Diabetes Association, 2014). They might
also influence their leaders and policy makers to ensure healthy policies.
Develop Personal Skills
A person who is skilled at doing something is likely to do it very well. This
strategy implies equipping individuals and communities with appropriate skills to
enable them to attain optimal care (Rosen, 2015). An example would be proper hand
washing skills. Extensive research has demonstrated that proper washing of hands
with soap and water significantly reduces the chances of developing certain kinds of
illnesses and infections (Baum, 2016). When it comes to the nurse, it seems that the
best way to promote health about diabetes is through creation of awareness. She
can do this through educating patients at the health facility about diabetes mellitus.
In addition, the nurse can mobilize other healthcare professional to create
awareness in the community. When a person has some knowledge regarding the
condition they are likely to act in manner to promote health. For instance, the nurse
could emphasize on the importance of being physically active on risk reduction for
diabetes mellitus type 2 and other conditions such as obesity. With that awareness,
individuals are likely to appreciate the value of physical fitness and engage
themselves in regular physical exercise (Lobelo and Stoutenberg and Hutber, 2014).
Reorient Health Services
This strategy is founded on the appreciation that optimal healthcare would result if
there is a harmonious cooperation between individuals, communities, healthcare
facilities etc when it comes to health promotion. Every person/group should play their
parts in ensuring this. A nurse can be involved in promoting health about diabetes
through reorienting health services. Such practices as maintaining ethics in health
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care and respecting the culture and personal beliefs of a patient/client contributes to
this. The patient is likely to feel cared for under such circumstances (Naidoo and
Wills, 2016). The nurse should also keep themselves informed about the latest
developments in the field of diabetes mellitus. As Stoddart and Evans (2017)
observes, science reveals more facts as time progresses which improves the quality
of care. A nurse who is offering care based on the most recent findings is likely to be
more successful at offering effective care. Additionally, the nurse can carry out
research relating to diabetes of mellitus. This has the potential of increasing the body
of knowledge and increase health promotion.
Conclusion
Health promotion is a great way of ensuring healthy individuals. It makes people
aware about health and equips them with skills necessary to achieve optimal health.
There are many factors that come together to influence health. The international
community is concerned about the health of all people on earth. For instance, there
is an international right that entitles every person to the highest attainable physical
and mental wellbeing. Due to the great importance of health promotion an
international conference was convened at Ottawa in 1986 to discuss the same. The
aim was to achieve optimum healthcare for all persons on earth by the year 2000
and beyond. The Ottawa charter notes that for effective promotion of health, various
factors affecting health should be considered. It outlined five main strategies for
achieving health promotion. The five are building of health public policy, creation of
environments that are supportive, strengthening community actions, developing
personal skills and reorienting healthcare services.
Diabetes mellitus is a condition that involves impaired metabolism of sugar. The
cases of diabetes are on the rise. It has been shown that there exists a great
relationship between lifestyle practices and the risk for diabetes mellitus. As
indicated in the discussion above, the nurse could play a significant role in using the
five strategies of the Ottawa charter to promote health. Some of the ways they can
do so is through creating awareness, influencing the making of healthy policies and
carrying out research to contribute to the body of knowledge.
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References
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Stoddart, G. L., & Evans, R. G. (2017). Producing health, consuming health care.
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