Why Is Health Promotion Important in Nursing?
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It’s one thing to treat and cure illness, but what if you could help to prevent it in the first place? “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” sums up the idea behind health promotion in nursing: that nurses can play a role in preventing disease and improving health by educating patients on health and wellness practices and being their advocate.
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It’s one thing to treat and cure illness, but what if you could help to prevent it in the first place? “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” sums up the idea behind health promotion in nursing: that nurses can play a role in preventing disease and improving health by educating patients on health and wellness practices and being their advocate.
What Is Health Promotion in Nursing Practice?
The World Health Organization (WHO) adopts the Health Promotion Glossary’s (1998) definition of health promotion: “Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health.” The 1986 WHO International Conference on Health Promotion in Ottawa (Ottawa Charter) set a goal of “health for all” by the year 2000, and that work is still ongoing. The Ottawa Charter’s basic strategies for health promotion were to “advocate (to boost the factors which encourage health), enable (allowing all people to achieve health equity) and mediate (through collaboration across all sectors).”1
While the WHO, as a global public health organization, is primarily focused on large-scale health policy, these strategies can be adapted and applied to disease prevention and health promotion in nursing practice on a more local scale/individual basis. Nurses can educate their patients on health matters, assist patients who are unable to advocate for themselves, provide counsel to enable patients to actively make better health decisions, and help patients coordinate preventative care or other health resources.
The Nurse’s Role in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Education: Education is an important part of the patient-centered approach to healthcare. Informed patients are better able to participate in shared decision-making with their healthcare providers and to understand the potential outcomes of their decisions. This idea applies not only in disease treatment but also in disease prevention and health promotion. And so, part of the nurse’s role in health promotion and disease prevention is to share information and make evidence-based health and wellness recommendations that are associated with better health outcomes—which is a fancy way of saying that nurses educate patients on how to stay healthy through lifestyle choices. Nurses may, for example, educate patients or the community on matters such as nutrition/healthy eating, vaccines, preventing/managing diabetes, managing stress, or alcohol consumption.
Advocacy: To educate is to inform, but to advocate is to speak up and champion something. In their role as advocates, nurses work to support and promote their patients’ interests. For example, a nurse might encourage an uninsured patient, who is reluctant to seek more preventative care services because of the cost, to utilize more affordable or accessible preventative health care services that may be available in the local community.
Counseling: Counseling can be another aspect of a nurse’s role in health promotion. Nurses can actively listen to their patients’ concerns, demonstrating understanding and compassion while building rapport. Their role as counselors provides an opportunity to build on their efforts to educate and advocate, for example, by actively encouraging patients to set health goals or change harmful behaviors.
Coordination: Sometimes people need a little extra help to access care. Nurses may help to connect a patient with different types of community preventative health resources (e.g., support groups, low-cost health screenings), identify which preventative care services a patient may qualify for or assist a patient with scheduling preventative healthcare appointments.
Potential Barriers to Health Promotion in Nursing
Nurse practitioners (NPs) are a type of advanced practice registered nurse (APRNs). They may be primary or specialty care providers, and many NPs work independently. They may assess patients, prescribe medications, order laboratory tests, determine ways to improve or manage a patient’s health and discuss ways to integrate health promotion strategies into a patient’s life. Additionally, NPs typically provide care to a specific segment of the population, for example, they may specialize in adult and geriatric health, pediatric health, or psychiatric and mental health.3
Requirements for APRNs vary from state to state, but generally speaking, they must hold a registered nursing (RN) license, complete an accredited graduate-level program in an advanced practice nursing field, pass a national certification exam and have an APRN license. Certifications for NPs, which must be periodically renewed, are offered by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board (AANPCB), the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board (PNCB).3
Overall employment of APRNs is projected to grow 40 percent from 2023 to 2033, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.3
The main factor contributing to this growth is an increased demand for healthcare services, fueled in part by an increased emphasis on preventive care as well as the aging population’s demand for healthcare services. Furthermore, changes in state laws governing APRN practice authority are making it possible for APRNs to perform more services. Meanwhile, the general public is increasingly coming to view APRNs as a source for primary healthcare3
The Future of Health Promotion in Nursing Practice
Although increased demand for healthcare services and disease prevention may be driven by the needs of an aging population, health promotion in nursing is not important for older adults only. It is also important for individuals across the lifespan because of its positive effect on health outcomes. Nurses who embrace a more holistic and patient-centered approach to healthcare have an opportunity to develop trusting relationships with individual patients and the community, and they can use this trust to further educate, advocate, counsel and coordinate care.
Learn more about CTU’s accredited online nursing degree programs today, or apply now.
1 World Health Organization (WHO), “Health Promotion,” https://www.who.int/health-topics/health-promotion#tab=tab_1 (last visited Mar. 24, 2025).
2 Rosemary M. Caron, PhD, et al., “Health Promotion, Health Protection and Disease Prevention: Challenges and Opportunities in a Dynamic Landscape,” AJPM Focus, Vol. 3, Issue 1, Feb. 2024, https://www.ajpmfocus.org/article/S2773-0654(23)00104-9/fulltext.
3 Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Nurse Anesthetists, Nurse Midwives and Nurse Practitioners,” https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/nurse-anesthetists-nurse-midwives-and-nurse-practitioners.htm (last visited Mar. 24, 2025).
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