Reviewing health promotion in nursing education

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The findings of many of the studies investigated in this review indicate that the health promotion delivery witnessed in many nursing curricula is actually that of health education delivery and prac- tice. A long-continuing tradition of many nursing curricula, notably at the under-graduate level, is that they remain predominantly grounded within behavioural, disease-focused, life-style-orientated determinants of health, often failing to represent and incorporate the broader societal, economic, ecological and political dimension of health promo- tion. This perhaps stands as a testament to many nursing curricula remaining out-of-step with wider health promotion agendas and the wider health promotion community. This may appear discon- certing to some, given the length of time that nurs- ing curricula have had to contextualise and engage in effective health promotion activity, both at the theoretical and practical level. Nursing education then, it is argued here, has some way to go if it is to effectively and universally implement health promotion reform at the educational level and, subsequently, produce practitioners that are capable and credible in the eyes of the wider health promotion community and who are able to effectively engage in and navigate a range of broad health promotion arenas.

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