Background
Defining health
Defining health promotion
Aims of the study
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interpret the concepts of health and health promotion
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perceive their role in health promoting practices
Methods
Study design
Study setting
Sampling of informants
Data collection
Data analysis
Ethical considerations
Results
The concept of health
"A multi-faceted concept"
What is health? Well, it is about the body, the soul and the spirit?Isn't it cultural, I mean that it will be defined differently depending on where in the world you are.Health means different things depending of what phase in life you are in
"A subjective assessment"
It is subjective. If you feel good you are healthyIt's about feeling good, being happyYou can feel healthy even if you are ill. It all depends on your own perceptions.
"Health is about life, the whole life"
The concept of health promotion
Health promotion in practice
"The demarcater"
Yes, but I wrote this with preventative care toward the most common diseases and even other conditions where prevention pays, but it doesn't only have to be from an economic viewpoint but where we have time and knowledge and can do something worthwhile, it can be sexually transmitted diseases, it can be infectious diseases of some sort...
We also have knowledge in the care sector on how one can also inform about besides medication also taking responsibility for one's health when the first sign of ill-health appears, for example, that blood pressure becomes elevated or weight becomes too much and other things that happen, that we can inform about the traditional...exercise and good food and review one's situation,...it is only the individual who can affect their own situation...
"The integrater"
It's a way of trying to integrate health promotion in the medical care. You have to work in parallel with both aspects ... You cannot just forget about one of them
That one actually gives self-help advice at every opportunity. Sitting in the lab chair, laying on the hospital cot and have them sitting still for five minutes to take blood pressure, yes then one has the chance.
...the work we do at the antenatal clinic and the contraceptive unit is of course health promotingNurses at the cardiac unit rehabilitate people after infarction ... which promotes life by giving it backIn orthopedics we inform a lot about the importance of making the right moves and to use all parts of the body.
If you have diabetes and come in and are prepared for insulin, if that is what you now need, then that is very health promoting.When they are dying we see to it they are well cared for .... that they perceive well-being during the days or weeks that are leftPerhaps they have been in a respirator ... one starts by just sitting on the edge of the bed, they have zero balance for sitting. And eventually they go home supported on their own legs ... to be with from zero and until they go home and are independent ...
One tries to encourage them [hospitalized patients] to have visitors and perhaps go out for a little bit in the fresh air, because it can be nice to get away from here and acquire new strength in being out of the room.
When they come to us they are already sick' [heart disease], and then it is from that perspective to get them to be healthy despite that they are ill. To get them back to life, to not be sitting at home and not activating themselves, to have the courage to return to a normal life so that they don't get even sicker, surely, you are able to go out and walk, aren't you, one is saying such things all the time and it is also health promoting.
"The promoter"
Everything is essentially preventative if one thinks of prevention levels...Where then is the health promoting perspective? And then I think in some way that one can see the health promoting perspective and the primary prevention level as companions in this context,...foremost the primary and health promoting level is about creating...a healthy population and the best health, therefore...
The major specialists regarding public health, they are those who let children...trainers for clubs, it can be sports, that is, where children and youths are active...it is essentially they who are specialists, one can say, on public health.
I usually say that one should start with children when one talks about health, but then it hits me that it should be the parents one should start with...because that is where it starts...how children learn to live according to the family patterns at home as the foundation
Health promoting is trying to have such a society where one can be old and live at home and maintain one's health as long as possible...that one can receive help so that one can maintain one's health and those functions one has
I work in the local prevention group and we talk about how we are going to get youths to not use drugs, how we will strengthen the parents in the parent role so that they dare to take responsibility for their children and be parents again."Inform at schools how extremely important it is for youths not just to sit around all day ... one can move around even if one has a geography lesson.
And so I think, resources outside our sphere, outside the county council sphere, that's what I usually take up to empower others to think and do things for health because it already happens and that we say it is good. That one organizes exercise dancing, that one takes gardening courses, that one starts weight loss groups, etc. That this in some way is acknowledged.
Discussion
Methodological considerations
The concept of health
The concept of health promotion
Health promotion in practice
Conclusion
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This study demonstrates a shared view of health, which creates good possibilities for communicating about health-related issues among health professionals. This is vital for the prospects of developing a health promoting practice. However, there is a need to further explore how the holistic view is distributed among different health professionals within the health system.
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The concept of health promotion appears as diffuse, elusive and difficult to apply in practice. This seems to be closely linked to a lack of agreement about the relationship between health promotion and disease prevention.
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Not all of the health professionals are able to identify health promotion as part of their professional role. Yet, they may act as health promoters without using the terminology.
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The different interpretations of what constitutes health promotion can lead to unnecessary misunderstandings and pose barriers to further development of a health promoting practice. Thus, policy makers have to understand the need for further clarification of the concepts and the implications for practice. This includes a discussion about "what is in it for me"; involving health professionals who are skeptical as well as those who wish to contribute to health promotion, but have difficulties in defining their own role.