Health promotion for people aged over 65 years in hospitals: nurses' perceptions about their role

To identify nurses' beliefs about health promotion and its delivery in routine care of people aged over 65 years.

Regardless of age, health promotion interventions can enhance health and, in general, older people are motivated to take such preventive action. The National Service Framework for Older People sets the promotion of healthy living as a standard for UK National Health Service Trusts. However, the delivery of health promotion is 'haphazard'; patients aged over 65 years rarely report receiving health promotion, and reports from nurses suggest they are unsure how to deliver effective health promotion.

A theory-based survey of all nurses working in a department specializing in the care of people aged over 65 years, 41% of questionnaires were returned.

The majority of nurses identified examples of health promotion and 88% judged health promotion to be effective and worthwhile. Three quarters of the sample viewed health promotion as part of their role and most of the respondents were confident in their ability to provide health promotion. However, the respondents also reported that health promotion was not appropriate for all their patients and considered it an increasingly difficult task as people got older. Organizational barriers to the routine provision of health promotion were identified.

Nurses working on wards for people aged over 65 years are mostly positive about integrating health promotion into their everyday work. However, for health promotion to be routinely implemented, all nursing staff need to feel confident in undertaking the task and believe it is worthwhile. Health promotion needs to be awarded greater importance by hospital management to ensure that it does not conflict with other work priorities. Until this happens the provision of health promotion in hospitals will remain sporadic and lack conviction.

With an increasing older population nurses need to be confident and proficient at implementing health promotion to patients aged over 65 years. This survey demonstrates that nurses need more training and support to achieve this.