NRS111: Reflection on Health Promotion and Lifelong Learning

This report is a reflection on the importance of health promotion and lifelong learning in nursing, based on a film analysis. The student was most impacted by a scene depicting a nurse conducting public health promotion, highlighting the vital role nurses play in promoting community health. The report defines health promotion and lifelong learning, emphasizing their significance in healthcare. Lifelong learning provides nurses with critical thinking and problem-solving skills, enabling them to address patient care issues effectively. The report also discusses the need for nurses to stay updated with current trends, technologies, and procedures, which leads to improved patient outcomes, job satisfaction, and career advancement. The conclusion underscores the importance of health promotion and lifelong learning in enhancing the well-being of individuals, families, communities, and the nation.

Running Head: HEALTH PROMOTION
PUBLIC HEALTH PROMOTION
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Introduction
The scene that attracted me is the part where a nurse was doing public health promotion.
This part impressed me because nurses play an essential role in promoting a healthy community.
Health promotion is a conduct science that draws immensely from biological, physical, and
therapeutic sciences. It aims to promote health, prevent outbreak of diseases, and curb premature
deaths and disability through public health education, among others (Raingruber, 2015). Public
health promotion leads to the positive behavioral influence of individuals and communities, as
well as their living and working conditions. Public health promoters are vital since they educate
the public on the medical procedures, services, and medical treatments and encourage the
utilization of services by patients who are at high risk of spreading diseases. It calls for serious
staff training and consultations with other health care providers. It is essential since it identifies
communities in identifying its needs and draws upon its challenge solving capabilities
(Raingruber, 2016).
Nurses focus on disease prevention and changing the conduct of individuals concerning
their health. They also possess a multidisciplinary knowledge and experience of health
promotion in their nursing practice (Edelman & Kudzma, 2017). With the availability of nurses
doing public health promotion, there can be reduced symptoms of chronic disease, an increase in
cost-effectiveness, and enhancement in the experience in the health care service provision. Public
health promotion is essential since it leads to positive health outcomes, including improved
quality of life, improved patients’ knowledge of their illness, self-management, and adherence to
prescriptions. Health promotion is important since it leads to the improvement of individuals’

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health wellbeing status, the family, and community status as well as national status. It leads to
the enhancement of quality of life for all community members (El Fadl, Blair, & Hassounah,
2017). It also leads to a reduction in financial and human costs that people, communities, and
nations spend in treatment.
Nurses introduce conceptual frameworks that are used to assist rural and urban
communities in the implementation of ways to prevent disease outbreaks and boost the rural-
based community health programs (Crisp, Brownie, & Refsum, 2018). Community awareness is
an essential aspect of preventative healthcare, and hence, nurses seek other vital factors that
influence public health.
Lifelong learning refers to the facilitation of learning, growth, and development through
the lifespan. In other cases, it is also called lifelong education and is viewed as a reflection of a
learning society. Instances of lifelong learning include retaining grown-up persons for new jobs
and firms and formal and informal knowledge, among others. Most educators have incorporated
lifelong learning based on the belief that development and learning will carry on across lifespan
as a ladder to adulthood. Its objective is to make learning accessible and involve persons
throughout the entire lifespan (Davis, Taylor, & Reyes, 2016). Healthcare is complicated, and its
practices are in continuous evolution. A considerable segment of the population above 60 years
and older patients mostly suffer from various chronic diseases and health conditions. Nurses
possess the required expertise to treat elderly persons and also assist them in managing illnesses
such as obesity, dementia, cancer, and arthritis, among others.

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To me, lifelong learning offers nurses critical thinking and challenge solving skills that
are required in addressing issues that may be encountered while taking care of patients. When
healthcare givers are well updated with the current skills, policies, technologies, and procedures,
they may affect healthcare in several issues, including; construction of strong collaborative
relations with patients and nurses, improvement of patient outcomes, lessening of death rates,
and reduction in the chances of errors (Şenyuva & Çalışkan, 2016).
Nurses need to pursue lifelong learning since;
Patients and most family members need customized healthcare. Although many patients
learn by themselves concerning the conditions, they believe that their nurses should be more
knowledgeable in diagnosis, progressions, and medic alternatives. Impactful leadership in
nursing needs nurses to have both management and interpersonal skills but also knowledge of the
ongoing trends in general healthcare and innovative novelty (Şenyuva & Çalışkan, 2016). With
the progression of nursing career over the years, some of the things that nurses learned in school
may become useless. As nurses accumulate experience in their jobs, it may be inadequate to keep
up with the increasing transformations in healthcare. Nurses who are well informed are happier
and show much confidence in their roles in nursing, and this is important since it assists in job
satisfaction and also helps in the retention of employees (Davis, Taylor, & Reyes, 2016).
Lifelong learning is also vital since it supports nurses to advance their careers and therefore help
them in increasing their salaries.

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Professional healthcare learning has become more complex as a result of the plethora of
published literature and the existing electronic, combined with the fact that there is the
emergence of new knowledge (Davis, Taylor, & Reyes, 2016). When entering nursing practice,
nurses have limited time for more learning and assessment, and overtime, there might be a
deterioration of professional’s knowledge upon the emergence of evidence-based practice.
Conclusion
Health promotion is a vital factor that contributes so much to the wellbeing of
individuals, families, communities, and nations. Public health promotion is important since it
helps in educating the public on medical progressions and ways to stay healthy. On the other
hand, lifelong learning is the facilitation of learning, growth, and development throughout the
lifespan and it is a reflection of a learning community. It is crucial since it makes learning
accessible and involves people in their entire lifespan.

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References
Crisp, N., Brownie, S., & Refsum, C. (2018). Nursing & Midwifery: The key to the rapid and
cost effective expansion of high quality universal healthcare. World Innovation Summit
for Health, 1-39.
Davis, L., Taylor, H., & Reyes, H. (2016). Lifelong learning in nursing: A Delphi study. Nurse
Education Today, 34(3), 441-445.
Edelman, C. L., & Kudzma, E. C. (2017). Health promotion throughout the life span-e-book.
London: Elsevier Health Sciences.
El Fadl, R. A., Blair, M., & Hassounah, S. (2017). Integrating maternal and children's oral health
promotion into nursing and midwifery practice-a systematic review. PloS one, 11(1), 11-
21.
Raingruber, B. (2015). Contemporary health promotion in nursing practice. Burlington: Jones &
Bartlett Publishers.
Raingruber, B. (2016). Health promotion theories. Contemporary health promotion in nursing
practice, 53(3), 53-94.
Şenyuva, E., & Çalışkan, F. (2016). Lifelong learning perception metaphoric of nurses.
Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 152(12), 372-378.