Health belief model
Health belief model: Please do a paragraph about this post with this instruction. Post must have 4 or more sentences. You also have to have a high quality post from a content perspective. This means it also needs to do more than agree with or praise a class mate. If you agree with a classmate, explain why, give an example, share what you learned in the readings, ask questions of each other, etc.
Health belief model was developed in 1950’s to
help understand people’s belief and attitude toward lifestyle changes. Patient
can be educated by the nurse and encouraged to make immediate and permanent
behavioral changes by focusing on the following factors perceived
susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cue
to action, and self- efficacy (changingmind.org website,n.d)
Perceived susceptibility – Patients
change their attitude when they believed they are at risk. They should be
helped to understand the condition that needed to be changed.
Perceived severity- The nurse should help the patient to
understand the impact , if affected by the condition. For instance, with a
heavy smoker patient that has heart disease, the nurse needs to explain to the
patient if he/she continues with smoking, it will lead to serious complications
that can result to sudden death or permanent damage.
Perceived benefits- No patient will
change his/her lifestyle without knowing the gain or benefit of the changes.
For instance, the nurse needs to educate a heavy smoker patient with heart disease that quitting smoking will greatly
reduce the recurrent of heart attack and cardiovascular death, Heart disease
risk associated with smoking begins to decrease soon after quitting , and the
risk of blood clots declares overtime after quitting smoking.
Perceived Barriers- This includes
factors that will stop patient from making the changes. The patient needs to be
given support , provide with phone number to call for questions, and routinely
checking of patient progress .
Cue to action- This will help patient in
making health changes. The nurse will
refer the patient to a support group in the community, encourage the patient to
track his /her progress on a calendar, sending emails that includes easy to
read educations regarding the conditions and also refer patient to government
agencies that can provide free medications or patches.
Self – efficacy- The nurse needs to know
how much the patient believed in him/herself, if the patient expresses any
doubt regarding the education and managements of the condition, then the nurse
will provide support, encouragement, and training to patient, even involving
the loved ones throughout the process is always helpful.
