Discussion:
Nurses have hard jobs, they encounter a variety of patients with a broad difference in health beliefs. Nurses everywhere use the Health Belief Model which "suggests that a person's belief in a personal threat of an illness or disease together with a person's belief in the effectiveness of the recommended health behavior or action will predict the likelihood the person will adopt the behavior (LaMorte, 2016)".
There are four key constructs:
- "Perceived Susceptibility" describes the persons assessment of the likelihood of them getting the given condition.
- "Perceived Severity" is the persons view of the severity of the condition if they were impacted by it.
- "Perceived Benefits" is the belief of a patient of how effective a medication or action will be for their overall health
- "Perceived Barriers" are the persons perceptions of the difficulties they would encounter in taking the proposed actions, including physical and psychological.
Encouraging patients to make immediate and permanent behavior changes that effect their lifestyles can be a very hard to do because patients have their own beliefs. Nurse professionals are faced with self-diagnosed patients which are the hardest to deal with. These are patients that come in with their own beliefs and decisions on there own health. To help encourage patients to make changes in their behavior and lifestyles choices nurses can use positive conversations to motivate a patient and to show them what can the positive outcomes be. The number one thing a nurse can do to help a patient is to educate them thru a variety of different ways. Educating the patients on the risk they are taking by not changing their healthy behaviors or lifestyle is crucial, to show or teach them a different way to approach a healthier lifestyle can sometimes change the thinking of a patient. Also by having the patients engage in programs specific to their need can help persuade a patient's outlook on their own health.