Nurse Faculty Scholars - Health Promotion

Describing an academic and nonprofit organization partnership to educate at-risk adolescents about cardiovascular health

agurin — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:38:08 +0000

Published Date:

Thu, 2014-10-23 (All day)

This article describes a partnership between an academic institution and a community nonprofit organization to develop and implement a cardiovascular health promotion program targeting at risk high school adolescents in underserved communities.

Ask the Expert: Vaccinate boys with the HPV vaccine? Really?

kdeming — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 14:08:39 +0000

Published Date:

Thu, 2013-04-11 (All day)

Tami Thomas, PhD, CPNP, RNC, answers questions related to the importance of vaccinating boys and men to prevent the human papillomavirus.

Tami Thomas, PhD, CPNP, RNC, answers questions related to the importance of vaccinating boys and men to prevent the human papillomavirus. This article was funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Our Community in Focus: The Use of Photovoice for Youth-Driven Substance Abuse Assessment and Health Promotion

lsharp — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:09:18 +0000

Published Date:

Mon, 2011-02-07 (All day)

The successful development and implementation of prevention curricula requires seeking strategies that combine the strengths of researchers and community members. Because young people are considered to be the experts in their own lives, it is important to determine effective ways to engage them in substance abuse assessment and prevention initiatives. The community-based participatory action research methodology of photovoice is one way to engage youth in assessment of this public health issue. “Our Community in Focus” was a project that used the photovoice methodology to engage high school youth in a community-based assessment of adolescent substance use and abuse. Through the photovoice method, youth were able to reflect their community’s strengths and concerns with regards to adolescent substance abuse, as they took photographs to answer the question “What contributes to adolescents’ decisions to use or not to use alcohol and other drugs?” The youth and the community were highly receptive to the project and its methodology, and photographs taken by photovoice participants presented a compelling argument for action.

Healthy Eating and Exercising to Reduce Diabetes: Exploring the Potential of Social Determinants of Health Frameworks Within the Context of Community-Based Participatory Diabetes Prevention

nfs — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:21:57 +0000

Published Date:

Fri, 2005-04-01 (All day)

Objectives. We examined a community-based participatory diabetes intervention to identify facilitators of and barriers to sustained community efforts to address social factors that contribute to health. Methods. We conducted a case study description and analysis of the Healthy Eating and Exercising to Reduce Diabetes project in the theoretical context of a conceptual model of social determinants of health. Results. We identified several barriers to and facilitators of analysis of social determinants of a community-identified disease priority (in this case, diabetes). Barriers included prevailing conceptual models, which emphasize health behavioral and biomedical paradigms that exclude social determinants of health. Facilitating factors included (1) opportunities to link individual health concerns to social contexts and (2) availability of support from diverse partners with a range of complementary resources. Conclusions. Partnerships that offer community members tangible resources with which to manage existing health concerns and that integrate an analysis of social determinants of health can facilitate sustained engagement of community members and health professionals in multilevel efforts to address health disparities.

Facilitating Behavior Change With Low-literacy Patient Education Materials

nfs — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:47:28 +0000

Published Date:

Mon, 2007-01-01 (All day)

Objective: To describe a process for developing low-literacy health education materials that increase knowledge and activate patients toward healthier behaviors.

Methods: We developed a theoretically informed process for developing educational materials. This process included convening a multidisciplinary creative team, soliciting stakeholder input, identifying key concepts to be communicated, mapping concepts to a behavioral theory, creating a supporting behavioral intervention. One half of American adults lack the literacy and numeracy skills necessary to effectively obtain, process, and act on the information in most patient education materials, recognition, designing and refining materials, and assessing efficacy.

Results: We describe the use of this process to develop a diabetes self-management guide.

Conclusions: Developing low-literacy health education materials that will activate patients toward healthier behaviors requires attention to factors beyond reading level.

Objective: To describe a process for developing low-literacy health education materials that increase knowledge and activate patients toward healthier behaviors.