Expanding health promotion to individuals with spinal cord injuries

Health promotion and preventive health services, though related, are not synonymous. Unlike preventive services, health promotion reaches beyond a specific action or inaction and nurtures a positive lifestyle. Many nurses believe in providing preventive health services to clients with spinal cord injuries (SCI) but describe them as clients who "will never get well." Nurses then question the relevance of health promotion services to those with SCI. This limited perspective fails to acknowledge that many individuals with physical disabilities perceive themselves as healthy. They know how to manage their disabilities and want to learn more about how they can actualize their potential in the context of their physical disabilities. Attitudes, overt or covert, that fail to recognize these individuals potential for health add to the disenfranchisement that they experience daily from society. This disenfranchisement often leads to hopelessness, anger, and depression. None of these emotions fosters health or happiness. The nurse who forges into health promotion expands his/her practice beyond the traditional "fix a problem" role. In the health promotion setting, the nurse's influence must move beyond preventing a specific complication and impact the more global outcome of promoting lifestyle choices, habits, and attitudes.