Health concepts quiz

• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
• Health represents the actualization of inherent and acquired human potential through goal-directed behavior, competent self-care, and satisfying relationships, according to Pender in 2015.
• An individual's perceptions and definitions of health evolve with age, influenced by their health beliefs.

Models of Health and Illness

• The relationship between these concepts and a patient's attitudes toward health and health behaviors defines complex concepts.
• Positive health behaviors are actions that maintain, attain, or regain health and prevent illness.
• Negative health behaviors, such as smoking, drug or alcohol abuse, risky sexual behaviors, poor diet, and refusing medication, harm health.

Health Belief Model (HBM)

• This addresses the connection between one’s beliefs and behaviors, comprised of three components.
• It includes an individuals perception of susceptibility to an illness.
• Is an individual's perception of the illness's seriousness.
• This is the probabilty that a person will take preventative measure.
• Use this to understand factors influencing patients' perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors to plan care to more effectively help patients maintain or restore health and prevent illness.

Health Promotion Model

• Health is defined as positive, dynamic state, not merely the absence of disease.
• Describes individuals multidimensional nature as they interact in an environment, as they pursue health.
• The model focuses on three areas:
  • Individual characteristics and experiences.
  • Behavior specific cognitions and affect.
  • Behavioral outcome.
• Enhanced functional ability helps to improve health.

Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

• Nurses use this to understand the interrelationships of basic human needs.
• According to the model, some human needs are more basic, they need to be met first.
• Self-actualization represents the highest expression of individual potential, facilitating continuous self-discovery.

Holistic Health Model

• The model nursing promotes a patient's optimal level of health by taking into account how emotiona,l spiritual, social, cultural, and physical aspects dynamically interact with an individuals wellness.
• Guides how choices affect our health positively.
• Some of the most used holistic interventions include meditation, music therapy, reminiscence, relaxation therapy, therapeutic touch, and guided imagery.

Variables Influencing Health & Health Beliefs and Practices

• A patient’s health and health beliefs and practices are influenced by many variables.
• These variables are internal and external.

Internal Variables

• Includes a person's:
  • Developmental stage.
  • Intellectual background.
  • Functioning perception.
  • Emotional and spiritual factors.

External Variables

• External variables include:
  • Family practices.
  • Psychosocial and socioeconomic factors.
  • Cultural background.
• Health beliefs usually influence health behaviors or health practices, which positively or negatively affect a patient's level of health.

Health Promotion, Wellness & Illness Prevention

• Public Health focuses on:
  • Health promotion.
  • Wellness.
  • Illness prevention.
• Health promotion helps individuals maintain or enhance their present health, and motivates people to engage in healthy activities.
• Health education provides information on topics such as physical awareness, stress management, and self-responsibility to enable individuals to improve their health.
• Illness prevention protects from actual or potential risks to health, helping avoid declines in their level of health or functional ability.

Three Levels of Prevention

• Primary prevention is TRUE prevention.
  • It's goal is to reduce the disease incidence.
  • Primary prevention includes health education and nutritional programs, plus:
    • Physical fitness activities.
    • All health promotion efforts.
    • Wellness education activities maintaining or improving health.
• Secondary prevention focuses on preventing the spread of disease, illness, or infection.
  • Activities are directed at diagnosis and prompt intervention, thereby reducing severity and enabling the patient to return to a normal level of health as early as possible.
• Tertiary prevention occurs when a defect or disability is permanent and irreversible.
  • It involves minimizing the effects of long-term disease or disability by interventions directed at preventing complications and deterioration.

Risk Factors

• Is any attribute, quality, environmental situation, or trait that increases the vulnerability of an individual or group to an illness or accident.
  • such as impaired gait, reduced vision, and lower extremity weakness
• Nonmodifiable risk factors cannot be changed.
  • These include age, gender, genetics, and family history
• Modifiable behavioral risk factors include smoking, drinking alcohol, unhealthy diet, obesity, physical inactivity, and insufficient rest and sleep.
  • These can predispose people at risk for diabetes and heart disease.
• Environment - the physical environment in which a person works or lives can increase the likelihood that certain illnesses will occur.

Risk Factor Identification & Changing Health Behaviors

• Health risk appraisal forms help identify health threats based on the presence of various risk factors.
• Implement appropriate and relevant health education and counseling to change or implement behaviors to maintain or improve health status, once you identify a patient's risk factors.
• Effective nursing should include effective interventions that match the stage of change.

Illness

• Illness and disease are different concepts.
• Illness is a state in which a person's physical, emotional, intellectual, social, developmental, or spiritual functioning is diminished or impaired.
  • It is a feeling of poor health.
• Disease is a medical condition that causes distress for a person in the form of its symptoms.

Illness Types

• Both acute and chronic diseases have the potential to affect many dimensions of functioning.
• Acute disease is usually reversible and it has a short duration.
  • The symptoms appear abruptly, are intense, and subside after a relatively short period.
• Chronic disease usually lasts more than 6 months, it is irreversible, and affects functioning in one or more systems.
  • Patients often fluctuate between maximal functioning and serious health relapses that may be life threatening.
• Illness Behavior happens when people adapt cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions to their diseases that are influenced by sociocultural and psychological factors.

Variables Influencing Illness and Illness Behavior

• Internal variables are a patient's perceptions of symptoms and the nature of a disease.
• External variables influence a patient's illness behavior, like:
  • Visibility of symptoms.
  • Social group.
  • Cultural background.
  • Economic variables.
  • Accessibility of the healthcare system.
  • Social Support.

Impact of illnesses

• Short term, non-life-threatening diseases usually require few changes in functioning of family or patient and are a type of behavioral and emotional change.
• Impact on body image is the physical appearance.
• Impact on self concpet is a mental self-image of all aspects of self.
  • It depends of body image, roles, and other aspects.
• Impact of family roles includes being a wage earner, decision maker, professional, child, sibling, or parent.
  • Role reversal is common.
• Impact on Family dynamics - making desicions, giving family supports, and coping with everyday situations that change.

To be able to provide competent quality and safe care, nurses need to take care of themselves to ensure they remain healthy.

Test your understanding of external variables, chronic illness, family dynamics, self-care, and health promotion models. Quizzes cover health beliefs, and their impact on well-being and patient care. Assess your knowledge of key healthcare concepts.