Do healthier nurses make better health promotors? A review of the literature

Abstract

This discussion paper draws on a review of the literature to explore factors that might promote or inhibit healthier nursing practice. The term healthier nursing practice, used here, refers to the way commitment to health promoting practices at organisational, professional and personal levels is demonstrated and achieved. Health promotion is a holistic concept that calls for the creation of empowered relationships between self, others, and the environment to improve wellness. Nurses have often struggled to achieve this within their patient encounters and even more so within their own personal and professional life experiences. Two factors were identified in the literature review that appear to significantly impact on this situation, the organisational environment within which nurses practice and their educational exposure to health promoting opportunities. There are a number of parallel processes identified that illustrate the difficulties nurses have in their experiences of working with patients and with themselves in promoting healthier lives. Action learning is advocated as an effective way for nurses to address what are sometimes perceived as being insurmountable barriers to developing health promoting opportunities for patients and the individual nurse.