Levels of Health Promotion
Health promotion is a practice that involves three categories of interventions namely
primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. The three have some similarities that include
being equally crucial in the prevention of diseases. They are also a great preliminary point
for change and improvement of care. All the levels are vital in the nursing profession because
practitioners can take part in all the steps of promotion. The three have five steps that include
particular defence and promotion of health, initial analysis, immediate treatment, prevention
of disability, and health renewal (McQueen, 2015). Nurse practitioners can use the three
levels of prevention to identify patient’s education needs.
The three levels of health promotion, however, have different ways of preventing
diseases and improving care. The primary prevention aims at avoiding illness or injury
before occurrence (Forshaw, 2016). The secondary prevention focuses on detecting the
presence of the disease early to decrease the effect of an injury or illness that has already
taken place (Forshaw, 2016). Tertiary prevention on the other hand aims at reducing the
impact of an illness that has already caused harm or one that is taking place (McQueen,
2015). The three are applied at different times of a disease prevention process but have a
similar goal of promoting health.
Identifying where a patient lies concerning the three levels of prevention helps
determine patient needs. Some of the health issues require applying all the levels of
prevention for the achievement of proper prevention of diseases and promotion of health.
Patients living in areas prone to diseases, for example, due to natural or artificial factors
would require the application of primary prevention to avoid them from contracting the
diseases. If a community experienced an environmental hazard, secondary prevention would
be applied immediately to avoid causing irreversible change. Patients with chronic diseases
would need the introduction of tertiary prevention to help reduce pain caused by the ongoing
illness.
References
Forshaw, M. (2016). Principles of Health Promotion. International Journal of Health
Promotion and Education, 54(4), 204-204. doi:10.1080/14635240.2016.1211504
McQueen, D. V. (2015). Health Promotion Applied to Infectious Diseases. Global Health
Promotion, 22(2), 3-4. doi:10.1177/1757975914534108
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