Health Educator Characteristics Quiz

Health Educator Characteristics

• A health educator promotes, maintains, and improves individual and community health by assisting individuals and communities to adopt healthy behaviors.
• Health educators collect and analyze community needs data prior to planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating programs to encourage healthy lifestyles, policies, and environments.
• They may also serve as a resource to people, other professionals, or the community and administer funding for health education programs.

Personal Characteristics

• Competent
• Communicator
• Confident
• Caring
• Enthusiastic
• Flexible
• Perceives the value of time
• Professional appearance
• Sense of humor
• Leader
• Self-control-not easily upset
• Organized
• Good observer
• Self-confident
• Cheerful, optimistic
• Friendly in relations with patients
• Physically and mentally fit
• Fair and objective in patient treatment
• Respectful of colleagues
• Emotionally stable
• Anticipates individual needs
• Demonstrates consistency in teaching

Professional Characteristics

• Competent:

  • Content competence: Knowledgeable about their topic, presenting complete and accurate information.
  • Skillful: Masters the content, demonstrates skills expertly to learners
  • Decision-maker: Determines the important aspects to teach.
  • Effective teacher: Has experience in technology (related to nursing) and educational media. Teaches home management for special problems

• Pedagogical competent:

  • Effective helping patient: Helps patients achieve desired objectives.
  • Adept: Aware of alternative teaching methods and strategies
  • Flexible: Adaptable in selecting and implementing teaching methods.
  • Communicator: Communicates objectives to patients.
  • Enviroment provider: Provides an appropriate learning environment and prepares appropriate teaching materials.
  • Ensures safety: Ensures patient safety while alleviating anxiety and providing individualized written instructions. Generates questions to engage learners.
  • Monitors understanding: Monitors learner understanding and provides appropriate feedback.

• Culturally Sensitive:

  • Understand the patient's culture: Understands core values, beliefs, and customs.

  • Develop culturally appropriate materials: Develop materials in the patient's native language.

• Ethically Committed:

  • Supports informed decision-making: Supports the right of individuals to make informed decisions.
  • Communicates potential consequences: Communicates the potential benefits and consequences of services.
  • Fair & objective: Treats patients and clients fairly and objectively, regardless of nationality or culture
  • Active participation: Respects the right of individuals to be actively involved in the educational process.
  • Truthful communication: Provides truthful information to patients.
  • Maintains confidentiality: Maintains confidentiality about patient information, except in specified instances (e.g., suspected suicide, infectious diseases, legislative requirements).

Communication Skills

• Empathy: Identifies with another person's feelings, is sensitive to patient feelings/problems, remains objective.
• Use validation: Actively listens and responds congruently to assure shared understanding of a problem/issue.
• Caring: Exhibits emotional involvement between the nurse and the client.
• Active listening: Includes hearing and interpreting both verbal and nonverbal cues.
• Use of silence: A valuable communication tool.

Teaching Methods

• One-way/didactic: Lecture, films, charts, exhibits, flashcards.
• General approach: TV, radio, news paper, printed material, posters, films
• Role of the nurse as health educator: Combines clinical abilities with assessments, planning, and developing health education programs. Implements and conducts research. Presents at nursing conferences and facilitates education. Promotes partnership with individuals and communities