Primary Disease Prevention

There are a wide range of emerging issues and challenges that occur within the health care system today. These issues and challenges are widespread among various sectors of health care system. Nursing as one of the major sectors in the health care system that deals with the provision of quality health care services has been equally affected by these issues and challenges. In the nursing profession, one of the major concerns is primary disease prevention. The main reason as to why primary disease prevention is a major concern to professional nurses, other healthcare practitioners, such as physicians and social workers, and everyone training to be a nurse or a healthcare practitioner in the future is because of its relevance in the provision of health care services. A large number of people are oblivious and not aware of the fact that most diseases such as heart disease and stroke that they suffer from can be prevented. For this reason, it is be prudent and laudable to keenly look into this issue. The primary disease prevention is barely known by a considerable number of people, or most of them simply overlook and pay no attention to it. In this sense, adequate awareness about primary prevention of diseases ought to be created to enable the general public to recognize and know that diseases such as heart disease and stroke can be curbed before they actually occur.

In the modern society, many people end up dying or losing their loved ones because of diseases that could be prevented. The reason for this is that they were not aware of the primary prevention methods. For instance, many adults in the United States die because of the lack of knowledge on how they could prevent diseases such as heart disease and stroke that kill them. Therefore, this is a very crucial issue because such deaths occur as a result of lack of adequate information and knowledge relating to primary disease prevention. For example, old people may have failed to receive proper counseling from nurses on how to deal with and manage heart disease and stroke. Similarly, a wide range of genetic disorders can be prevented, but because of lack of consciousness, a lot of families end up believing that they are living under a curse, whereas in reality, it is a medical condition that can be prevented before its occurrence. It is for these reasons the primary disease prevention should be viewed as a key issue and be given a lot of consideration and magnitude. As Nathanson puts it, the problem of lack of knowledge and information about primary disease prevention is with people and lives within them. Therefore, immediate and profound measures should be put in place to help curb this challenge within the health care industry. It is obvious that information is power; thus, the more one gets informed, the more effective and efficient shall one be able to deal with the challenges he or she faces.

Literature Review

Primary disease prevention is the practice of preventing a disease from occurring by reducing its incidences of occurrence as well as its prevalence. It usually encompasses taking appropriate steps to put a stop to illnesses and the associated agents that cause them. According to Nathanson, the process of primary disease prevention involves the promotion of good health by practicing healthy lifestyles. In this case, prevention precedes the disease or the condition. This type of prevention has over the years been proven to have led to a considerable decrease or decline of the probability of the occurrence of most prevalent diseases such as heart disease and stroke among adults.

In primary disease prevention, a health care professional usually a nurse gives certain principles and guidelines to patients or the general public on how to prevent certain diseases or conditions. For instance, a nurse can give advice on ways to prevent heart disease and stroke among adults through exercising regularly and practicing good dietary. This information is basically crucial to adults, the aging population and the society in general. A nurse can also educate people about nutrition and proper dietary as well as the importance of exercising regularly, and how these healthy life practices can help reduce the occurrence of heart disease, stroke, blood pressure and obesity among adults.

According to Clement, primary disease prevention is pertinent to the nursing profession because nurses are the only health care professionals that come in contact with people who are in need of such information on a daily basis or more regularly. Therefore, nurses should be well equipped with the most relevant and recent knowledge and information about primary disease prevention in order to enable them guide their patients properly on the importance of taking proper preventive measures that would shield them from infections and diseases. Nathanson also asserts that nurses should be ambassadors of primary disease prevention by holding campaigns on significance of proper health care practices such as immunization. They should reach out to people and offer valid ways to help them prevent diseases, and in turn, they will be able to prevent the consequent results that could have later on occurred. The works by Nathanson and Clement are essential for the nursing profession, because they focus on primary disease prevention, which is a critical component of the nursing practice.

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Appropriate Leadership for Addressing the Primary Disease Prevention Problem

In this context, the most appropriate leadership style that would help in addressing the issue of primary disease prevention is transformational leadership. This leadership style is ideal because it allows for the advancement of both the leader and his followers. In transformational leadership, the leader and the followers experience subsequent growth up to a level of morality and motivation. According to Tabrizi and Terrell, a transformational leader usually works towards inspiring his or her followers to change their expectations and perceptions about the issue under concern. This leads to a mutually beneficial collaboration between the leader and the followers as they work towards the attainment of a desired common goal.

The core basis of transformational leadership style is based on the ability of the leaders personality, behaviors and the aptitude to make a change through setting admirable examples and energizing vision and challenging goals. Transformational leaders are idealized in the sense that they work towards the benefit of the entire team. Thus, transformational leadership is ultimate for solving the problem of primary disease prevention in the health care sector.

Consequently, a nurse should take up the role of a transformational leader, whereas patients or the community should take up the role of followers. The nurse should prioritize the advancement of his or her followers by giving them relevant guidelines on how to prevent the incidence of preventable diseases. This style of leadership is the most appropriate, because a nurse would not focus so much on his or her personal growth, but rather the advancement and improvement of the patients. The wellbeing or health of a patient would be given much importance than that of the leader under this type of leadership style. Moreover, the nurse feels motivated, when he or she sees the advancement of followers rather than his or her own growth. When this style of leadership is adapted to address the problem of primary disease prevention, a substantial number of people would be reached easily, because transformational leaders usually wish to grow with a large number of followers.

Actions That a Nurse Leader Can Take to Address the Problem of Primary Disease Prevention

A nurse leader can take up a variety of actions in order to deal with the issue of primary disease prevention. Firstly, the nurse leader can hold prevention awareness campaigns by teaming up with the media in order to bring the attention of the public to the proper actions that ought to be taken in order to reduce the occurrence of preventable diseases.

Secondly, the nurse leader can coach and advise patients on primary disease prevention techniques. He or she would encourage patients to reach for their health goals without giving up. For instance, the nurse leader would advice an old person to maintain a regular exercise program or diet in order to prevent heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. The nurse could also take part in the exercise program or dieting in order to set a good example. Through this, the issue of preventing a disease would be achieved easily.

Thirdly, the nurse leader would act as an intellectual stimulant, hence assisting in the propagation of the issue of primary disease prevention. The nurse leader would assist adults by challenging their normal beliefs and perceptions about prevalent diseases such as heart disease and stroke. He or she would also act as an intellectual stimulant by requesting and persuading old people to seek medical assistance immediately attacked by heart disease or stroke. This would enable the adults understand the importance of medical assistance when dealing with prevalent diseases such as heart disease and stroke.

Summary and Conclusion

The primary disease prevention is a critical issue in the modern society. It is alarming that the statistics of old people, who lose their lives because of preventable diseases such as heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure, is rising every new day. The awareness on these diseases has to be created, and health care professionals, particularly nurses, should take a forefront in passing information to the public. It is professionally and socially unacceptable for people to lose their lives because of preventable diseases. Therefore, appropriate health care measures and practices should be developed and deployed to help solve the problem. Although nurses would be the primary people, who would help in achieving this goal, other health care professionals should also be involved or encouraged to participate.

Through the use of appropriate leadership styles, such as transformational and participative leadership styles, members of the society should be informed with the help of friendlier means of how to address the issue of primary disease prevention. The nurses and other medical practitioners should embrace transformational leadership in their service delivery, and by doing so, they will help address the issue of primary disease prevention, hence saving more lives. In addition, the public should also be willing to embrace their role and seek information from health professionals on how to prevent diseases. Lastly, prevention is better than cure. Therefore, any disease or condition that can be prevented should be prevented early enough before its occurrence.