Healthcare Setting: Individual Health Determinants Essay

This essay examines the challenges healthcare providers face when working with adolescents, identifying the adolescent stage as the most challenging due to rapid developmental changes. It focuses on health-related constructs, such as behavior changes and health risk behaviors, that impact interactions between healthcare providers and adolescents. The essay highlights the influence of peer pressure and the need to balance adolescent autonomy with medical guidance. It explores emotional and psychological changes, including the adolescent's sense of invincibility and evolving independence, and how these can complicate healthcare interventions. The essay proposes strategies like educating adolescents and their families to manage emotions and circumstances, emphasizing the importance of understanding the adolescent stage to establish professional limits and identify unique medical care needs, and how acknowledging adolescents' independence can improve health outcomes.

Running head: INDIVIDUAL HEALTH DETERMINANTS
INDIVIDUAL HEALTH DETERMINANTS
[Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]
[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

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INDIVIDUAL HEALTH DETERMINANTS
Within this essay is an explanation of a perceived to be the most challenging lifespan to
work in a healthcare setting and the constructs related to health that is considerate in impacting
the interactions between the health care provider and the client. A lifespan stage that would the
most challenging to handle in a healthcare setting is adolescence. Adolescence stage represents
the most rapid stage of human development and it is at this stage where a transition occurs from
childhood to adulthood. At this stage, individuals gain biological maturity with tremendous
changes witnessed in the psychological and physical make of an individual and his environment
(Medicine, 2010).
The adolescence stage comes with categorical developmental and health needs and rights
that need to be looked into with the required attention. There is need to understand and learn how
to manage the emotions, abilities, and attributes of this lifespan stage (Martin, 2013).
Adolescents have challenges with freedom of space and choice and thus in most cases find
themselves rubbing shoulders on claims of infringement of rights and freedoms. It thus becomes
quite a challenge for a healthcare provider to balance between the freedom of choice of the
adolescent and offering medical instructions.
The health-related constructs that would affect the interaction between an adolescent and
the healthcare provider include behavior changes and health risk behaviors. Health risk behaviors
are attitudes and actions related to such attitudes and perceptions that enhance a person’s
propensity to avoid or engage in an activity that is perceived to be harmful or dangerous to his
health (Prentice, 2014). Being a vibrant demographic group, adolescents are quick at going far
beyond their imagination in order to find out for themselves the repercussions engagements.
Adolescents engage themselves in a range of activities including drug and substance abuse as
well as sexual behaviors.

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INDIVIDUAL HEALTH DETERMINANTS
Risk behaviors including unprotected sexual intercourse, smoking, dangerous
consumption of alcohol and anti-social surround the lives of adolescents and are capable of
completely eroding the quality of their health. At this explorative stage, the adolescents would
rarely listen to the medical instructions offered by the healthcare provider especially regarding
such things as refraining from drug and substance abuse. With the high prevalence of peer
influence at this stage, they would find it unnecessary and weird not to be doing what the peers
are deeply engaged in and as such renders medical instructions less helpful (Martin, 2013). There
would be a feeling that the medical practitioner is failing to understand or may be deliberately
ignoring the power of choice vested upon the adolescents.
Among the behavioral changes in adolescents are emotional and psychological changes.
Emotional changes include being more sensitive, self-conscious, and intense emotions in doing
things. Adolescence is a stage of developing independence and the adolescents exercise this
independence by questioning the legalities and relevance of some things and going to the extent
of breaking rules at times. Adolescents at times engage in actions and thoughts that could be
described as bullet proof i.e. thoughts that nothing harmful or bad can happen to them.
A healthcare provider would have challenges differentiating errors made in judgment
from a misbehavior that would require professional intervention. Because of their independence,
the adolescents are in most cases out of direct control of their parents. It becomes therefore
difficult for the medical practitioner to be able to successfully make a follow up of medical
instructions given to such patients. Under such circumstances, therefore, the behavior of the
adolescent is determined by his own behavioral and moral codes which are influenced by how he
was brought up (Neinstein, 2014).

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INDIVIDUAL HEALTH DETERMINANTS
There exist chances of misuse of the independence and freedom of choice as for the case
where an adolescent deliberately ignores the instructions of the doctor. In such case, the
individual is exposed to more risks and therefore may need to seek medical for a period longer
than the anticipated. This would, in turn, reduce the quality of life of the individual.
In order to modify the behaviors aimed at reducing these challenges, a number of
strategies can be deployed among them educating the adolescent and their family members on
how to manage and understand their emotions and circumstances (Council, 2012). As a medical
practitioner, it would important to fully understand the robust and vibrant nature of the
adolescence stage so as to be equipped with the knowledge of how to effectively handle the
individuals. Being able to distinguish between an error in judgment by the adolescent and
possible misbehavior would be important in the establishment the professional limit.
Still, this understanding helps in determining the form of professional intervention deploy
in handling a certain situation. It is also of importance to identify the unique medical care needs
of the adolescent so as to be able to streamline care in this line when handling the lifespan stage.
Adolescents require attention and recognition of their independence. Acknowledging the
independence of the adolescents make them feel part of the ongoing medical process hence
improving their health quality (Prentice, 2014).

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INDIVIDUAL HEALTH DETERMINANTS
References
Council, N. R. (2012). Challenges in Adolescent Health Care: Workshop Report. New York:
National Academies Press.
Martin, L. R. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Health Communication, Behavior Change, and
Treatment Adherence. New York: OUP USA.
Medicine, I. o. (2010). Challenges in Adolescent Health Care: Workshop Report. London:
National Academies Press.
Neinstein, L. S. (2014). Adolescent Health Care: A Practical Guide, Volume 414. New Delhi:
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Prentice, A. (2014). Health and Nutrition in Adolescents and Young Women: Preparing for the
Next Generation: 80th Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop, Bali, November 2013.
London: Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers.
Weiner, I. B. (2013). Handbook of Psychology, Developmental Psychology. Chicago: John
Wiley & Sons.