Aims of Nursing

[Blessone]

I am trying to a clear understanding the difference b/n promoting health and preventing illness. When given a case study the two are so similar can anyone define a clear way to know the differences especially in a test? I had a question that asked you are teaching a class of jr. high students about the effects of smoking. Is this promotion of health or prevention.

To me it be to promote or prevent but which is the best answer. In all case situations.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

hi, blessone! . .well, my first thought was to go out on the internet and look to see if there was a difference in the two terms in the healthcare community. unfortunately, i don't have the time for that at the moment, so i did the next best thing and went to my webster's collegiate dictionary. to promote has to do with moving forward, growth, and interestingly, one definition brings up the idea of stirring up interest in something. a synonym for promote is advance. on the other hand, prevent has to do with the anticipation of something to come that you are acting to avert from happening. you are trying to keep something from happening.

based on those definitions, i would say that teaching about the effects of smoking would be preventative health since to actually go ahead and smoke is going to lead to all kinds of health problems which you are trying to prevent.

a health promoting activity would probably be more along the lines of teaching the basics of good nutrition and proper diet or how a kid should brush their teeth.

in those contexts, it makes sense to me. however, i could be totally off the wall on this, so you should probably do a little bit more research on this than i just did.