Health Belief Model and Health Education Public/population health standards place the conventional medical individual care model within several determinants of health. Currently, various public health models exist and are available for a huge range of purposes such as the Health Belief Model. These various health models exist to provide an improved understanding of the dynamics relating to the health and wellbeing of populations. In addition, there are social determinants of health (SDOH), which basically refer to the political, social and economic factors that impact the health of individuals and populations. The social determinants of health also refer to the ecological model and place significant emphasis on healthcare institutions and organizations established by humans to organize or structure social processes relating to individuals and populations’ health including health education. This paper examines how the Health Belief Model can be used to address the issue of health education.

The Issue of Health Education

The modern public health sector is characterized by emergence of health problems, particularly chronic diseases that have become common. Chronic diseases, disabling condition, and financial burdens are documented in existing literature on modern health problems. Given the increased burdens associated with chronic diseases and disabling conditions, health education and educators are expected to play a critical in addressing these conditions (Derryberry, 2004). Health education is expected to play a new and unique role in addressing these conditions and promoting the health and wellbeing of populations. The significant role of health education in this process is attributable to the fact that it’s the basis with which health professionals and practitioners obtain foundational and practical knowledge for their practice. Therefore, health education is the basic framework for promoting the...

The task of health education, which is usually difficult, has been complicated by the lack of specific processes for preventing today’s illnesses. Additionally, health education is facing problems relating to the absence of fully effective curative measures for various patient populations. In light of the increase in complexities in and issues facing health education, health educators’ job has become more difficult in scope. These complexities and difficulties occur at a time when there is an acute nursing shortage. Aiken, Cheung & Olds (2009) state that employment opportunities in the health sector are expected to grow for registered nurses in comparison to other occupations. This expected growth is attributable to nursing shortage issues, which continue to place significant burdens on health education. Therefore, nurses are the at-risk population in relation to health education since the health education complexities affect their academic preparation.
Objectives

This paper seeks to examine how the Health Belief Model can be used to address the issue of health education at a time when nursing shortage has enhanced the need for more nurses and placed huge burdens on the health education segment. As a result, the study will focus on achieving several objectives as follows…

1. To examine the theoretical and research perspectives relating to the issue of modern health education.

2. To enhance understanding on how public health models and social determinants of health can be used to examine a public health problem.

3. To demonstrate how public health models and social determinants of health can be used in formulating effective initiatives to deal…