Concept of Health Education

Definition

"Health education is a holistic process with intellectual, psychological, and social dimensions related to activities that increase people's capacity to make decisions that affect their own, their families', and their community's well-being."

"Health education is a process through which people are helped to learn to achieve health through their own actions & efforts," the WHO Expert Committee states.

Objectives

The goal of health education is to change people's knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.

The Amla-Ata Declaration, adopted in 1978, and the WHO definition, adopted in 1969, both serve as helpful foundations for formulating the goals and objectives of health education. These goals and objectives may be stated as follows:

• To pique interest, impart new knowledge, enhance abilities, and alter attitudes so that people can make logical decisions to solve their own problems.
• To encourage proper use of the health services that are at their disposal.
• To motivate people to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles and practices.
• To promote community and individual participation and self-reliance in order to achieve health development through community and individual involvement at every stage of problem identification and resolution.

The group that will be taught in the educational program is the target audience for the educational objectives. Thus, health education should inspire people to act differently and to overcome their ignorance and preconceived notions. It ought to motivate people to make their own personal health improvements.

Principles

The nurse needs to keep in mind that health education is more than just a short speech required only for the uninitiated or to be given at a specific time. An individual develops into an adult through internal learning. It is possible to use certain learning principles abstractedly in health education. These consist of:

Interest

• People are less likely to listen to items that do not interest them, according to psychological theory. There should be a motivation or interest in learning. Health education will be successful if it is based on the needs that the community feels are most pressing. People won't pay much attention to family planning, for instance, if a health worker continues to emphasize it during a typhoid outbreak in a community because everyone's attention will be focused on finding a solution to the immediate issue. However, the employee must generate interest in any topic.

Motivation

• There is an innate drive to learn in every human. This desire's arousal is referred to as motivation. There are primary and secondary motives, respectively. Primary motives are inborn desires that drive people to take action (for example, sex, hunger, and survival). Secondary motivations are driven by externally generated desires, love, rivalry, rewards and punishments, and recognition. Motivation, or the requirement for incentives, is a crucial component in health education because it opens the door to change.

Participation

• The word "participation" is crucial in health education. Health education should encourage people to actively identify their own health issues and develop solutions and plans to address them with the help of health professionals and others. Family involvement in patient care will open up opportunities for more efficient, application-based health education. A high level of participation often fosters decision-making, acceptance of oneself, and a sense of involvement. It gives the most feedback possible. Both teachers and students should participate in the process, which should be two-way.

Reinforcement

• Few people have the capacity to learn everything new at once. Repeating at regular intervals is essential. There is a good chance that the person will revert to the pre-awareness stage if there is no reinforcement. People are more likely to remember a message if it is repeated in various ways. Repetition can be frustrating and tiresome, but it is necessary in our community to ensure that everyone has understood.

Learning by doing

learning is an action-process; not a "memorizing" one in the narrow sense. The Chinese proverb; "If I hear, I forget; if I see, I remember; if I do, I know" illustrates the importance of learning by doing.

Known to Unknown

• We must move "from the concrete to the abstract," "from the particular to the general," "from the simple to the more complicated," "from the easy to more difficult," and "from the known to the unknown" when conducting health education work. These guidelines govern the instruction. We begin with the individuals where they are and with what they understand before moving on to new information. To put it simply, one should start educating individuals based on what they already know before exposing them to new information.

Good Human Relations

• Sharing thoughts, feelings, and information is easiest when there is a solid rapport between the parties involved. Developing communication skills goes hand in hand with establishing strong relationships with others. The nurse should not be overly worried when acting as an instructor. No matter how much she may know about the subject, education will not be successful if she is not a good listener, polite, kind, and nice in her demeanor. As a teacher, let the class or individual express their opinions and clear up any confusion.

Setting an Example

• The health educator should be an excellent role model for the concepts she teaches. If she smokes while attempting to educate others about the dangers of smoking, she will be less effective. She won't get very far if her own family is large if she is discussing the "small family norm."

Credibility

• It refers to how much the recipient of the message believes it to be trustworthy. Since good health education is fact-based, it must be congruent with scientific understanding, as well as with the local culture, educational system, and social objectives. No desired action will occur as a result of receiving the message unless the audience has faith and confidence in the communicator.