Reconciling the differences between health promotion in nursing and ‘general’ health promotion

“

While progress has been made by nursing in its contribution to the field of health promotion, this effort has not always been as concerted or sustained as with the more general health promotion community. The encoura- ging note, of late, is that more evident pockets of effective nursing-related health education health promotion work are emerging in the practice arena. Unfortunately, this health-related clinical work is still being marred by the continuing lack of both clear theory and policy – as a means to underpin and validate its basis. Any debate put forward, such as in this article, is useful in that it questions current issues and challenges existing practices. Such discussion can only serve to assist further understanding and, hopefully, help to underpin further collaborative reform. If nursing wishes to reconcile its current health promotion predicaments, so that its practices are more aligned and attuned to the wider health promotion community, then more of this discussion is required – especially at the ‘coal-face’.

”