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Health Promotion And The Nurse Essay

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The profession of nursing has come a long way from when it first began. In the 18th century, before nurses were established, health care in homes was provided by mothers or housewives, and health care in hospitals was provided by untrained servants (Novak, 1988). The role of nurses was not recognized until an American public health reformer by the name Lemuel Shattuck, who is known as the father of Public Health, suggested a change. Shattuck recommended that health departments and boards become more organized and sanitary by educating nurses to care for the sick (Novak, 1988). In today’s population, many hospitals and communities rely on the work of nurses to provide health care. The research conducted for this paper identifies health promotion and the nurse’s role within in it, and health promotion specifically for nurses working in the specialty of Gerontology. Nurses that specialize in Gerontology have been trained to work with anyone over the age of 65 with complex health problems and to help them achieve a sense of wholeness and well-being while keeping their body, spirit, and mind healthy and active (Eliopoulis, 1997).
Health was originally seen as the absence of disease and illness. However, the health of an individual is greatly impacted by many other factors such as their social and physical environment and by increasing the control an individual has over their own health. Therefore, health promotion can be summarized as enabling individuals to achieve a higher

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