Question

Discuss how the concept of "health" has changed over time. Discuss how the concept has evolved to include wellness, illness, and overall well-being. How has health promotion changed over time? Why is it important that nurses implement health promotion interventions based on evidence-based practice?

Answer 1

Health is defined as the complete state of physical ,mental ,social and spiritual well being and not merely the absence of disease.

Early Humans & Health

- learning occurred by observation, as well as by trial and error

- development of rules and taboos

- believe in influence of evil spirits and gods

Continuous evolution of each concept is occurring, in order to change along with this ,we the people also has to change or modify ourselves ,our beliefs , principles ,techniques etc . Health , healthcare system , it's prevention ,promotion and restoration methods all have evolved with time and it needs to be in the ongoing phase for accomplishing higher achievements of disease free country.

Earlier people used to consider health as disease free state and disease as the punishment of sins . Then later included the mental aspect of health ,then further social and spiritual aspects because a human being is composed of all these aspects so it's necessary that all these are appropriate, up to mark and well functioning for defining a person as healthy.

​​​​​In the past , the healthcare system used to have and gave more stress on the prevention methods only. They just implemented disease prevention policies , and methods . No follow up of the health status in terms of recovery was done . But now , it has changed an overall change . Now the healthcare system has three phases of healthcare management which is dealt by different individual and persons . These are prevention ,promotion ,and restoration .

- prevention ( measures to prevent disease )

- promotion ( measures taken to promote health )

- restoration ( measures to restore health after injury or disease)

Researches are increasing day by day . Evidences are used to treat a particular condition in the present scenario . Evidences are the main part of a management system. New evolution in the field of medicines ,surgeries , nursing practice ,pharma etc are developed on the basis of the findings of the research . Health promotion also has changed over time . Earlier people used to take injection only after they are infected with the disease ,now a days people are using the vaccines to prevent and promote health . For example - HPV to prevent cervical cancer , rotavirus.

We are dealing with human beings not machines , life is the most important thing in our life and it's very crucial and difficult to maintain a healthy life . People approach to the physicians with the hope of recovery and to get free of disease . To provide an effective care to the patient's ,the physicians and other health care workers like nurses should use evidence based practice in the settings based on the researches done . It will help in providing accountability and use of new evolution in healthcare . It helps in the early recovery and discharge of the patient .