Nursing Theorist Nola Pender

Nursing Theorist Nola Pender: One of the significant roles of nurses in their daily activities is to assist patients to learn to take care of themselves and make decisions and choices that promote their health. The reason nurses help patients to learn to take care of themselves is that patient's participation in their own self-care helps in preventing illnesses and diseases and ensure that they have improved overall health.

As a result of this need, several theories have been developed by various practitioners in the nursing field to help patients towards self-care. One of these theories is the Health Promotion Model, which was developed and introduced by nursing theorist Nola Pender. The main basis for the development of this theory is to assist patients to prevent illnesses through their choices and behaviors.

In the past few years, health promotion has been a major subject that has attracted substantial interest among health care workers and the general public given the increase in healthcare costs. In light of the significance of health promotion, Nola Pender's Health Promotion Model is one of the most commonly used theories for health promotion. History of the Theorist: Dr. Nola J. Pender introduced the Health Promotion Model that is used across the globe for nursing education, research, and practice ("Nola J. Pender," n.d.).

She developed this theory following her educational background and active research career in the nursing profession. Dr. Pender graduated with a bachelor's degree and master degree in 1964 and 1965 respectively from Michigan State University. She later proceeded to obtain a doctorate degree in 1969 from Northwestern University. Her educational background in the nursing profession started in the mid 1970s when she started health promoting behavior. One of her initial achievements in the nursing field occurred in 1972 when she was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Michigan State University School of Nursing.

Dr. Pender published the Health Promotion Model in 1982 and obtained an Honorary Doctorate of Science degree from Widener University in 1992 ("Health Promotion Model -- Nola Pender," n.d.). The second major achievement by Dr. Pender in the nursing profession occurred in 2005 when she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Midwest Nursing Research Society. She has continued to make significant contributions in nursing including publications of numerous texts and journals and serving as a Distinguished Professor at Loyola University Chicago's School of Nursing. Furthermore, as a retired practitioner, Dr.

Pender spends her time consulting on health promotion research nationally and globally. Notably, Dr. Nola J. Pender has served as a nurse educator for more than four decades where she taught baccalaureate, masters, and PhD levels. Throughout her career, she taught and mentored students including post-doctoral fellows. As part of developing the theory, she tested the model with adolescents and adults to examine its usefulness. In this case, she examined the usefulness of the theory by assisting adolescents to adopt physically active lifestyles.

Components of the Metaparadigm: The nursing profession consists of metaparadigm concepts or components i.e. nursing, environment, health, and patient. The patient or person in the nursing field refers to the sick individual including his/her families and social groups. In the nursing profession, patients are considered as valued individual who is nurtured, respected, and understood with the right to make decisions regarding his/her health. The environment is described as the geography and landscape of an individual's social experience.

It's also considered as the setting or context of the person's experience of daily life and includes various aspects like space, time, and quality. As a dynamic process, health is the synthesis of wellness and illness and is described as the perception of the patient across the life span ("Metaparadigm Concepts," n.d.). Since it's an academic discipline and practice profession, nursing is the art and science of holistic health care that is based on human values like responsibility, freedom, and choice.

Key Concepts, Propositions and Assumptions of Nola Pender's Theory: Nola Pender's theory was developed to act as a multivariate concept for explaining and forecasting the health promoting aspect of a person's lifestyle. The theory is used to evaluate a person's background and supposed perceptions of self to predict health behaviors and other factors. Health Promotion Model is based on some key concepts i.e. health promotion, health protection or prevention of illness, personal attributes and experiences, behavioral outcomes, and behavior-specific cognitions and affect.

Health promotion refers to behavior motivated by the intention to enhance well-being and actualize the potential of human health as an approach to wellness. Health protection or prevention of illness is behavior motivated with the intention to actively avoid illness, discover it early, and maintain functioning based on constraints of illness.

The main assumptions of the Health Promotion Model include individuals seek to actively control their own behavior, individuals interact with the environment in all their bio-psychosocial complexity, health professionals being part of the interpersonal environment, and self-initiated reconfiguration of person-environment interactive measures ("Health Promotion Model," 2012). Some of the major propositions of the theory include individuals commit to engaging in behaviors which they expect to receive personally valued benefits, perceived obstacles can limit commitment to action, and positive affect toward a behavior contributes in improved perceived self-efficacy.

Summary of the Theory: The Health Promotion Model recognizes that every individual has unique personal characteristics and experiences that have impact on subsequent actions. Since the set of variables for specific knowledge on behavior and affect have vital motivational significance, they can be modified through nursing actions. The end point of Health Promotion Model is health promoting behavior, which is the intended behavioral outcome. These behaviors should contribute to improved health, better ability to function, and improved quality of life across all levels of development.

Through its focus on health promotion and illness prevention, Health Promotion Model is relevant to nursing to the extent that nursing actions given to patients are geared towards health promoting behaviors. Application of the Theory to Nursing Practice: Based on analysis of the Health Promotion Model, the theory seems to be applicable in community health care setting. This is primarily because such settings are considered as the most appropriate avenues for promoting health and preventing illnesses (Gonzalo, 2011). Through this theory, a community.