Nurse's Evaluation on Health Education in Portuguese Pediatric Hospitals and Primary Care for Children/Young and...

This study aimed to analyze the nurse's evaluation of the health education practice to children and parents.

This is a descriptive and transversal research with a quantitative approach. The selection took place by non-probabilistic convenience sampling, and was developed with nurses on health units for pediatric hospitalization and primary health care in northern Portugal (Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro Hospital Center, EPE, Northern Regional Health Administration, Northern Local Health Unit, EPE.). Data were collected using a questionnaire with a sample of 311 nurses in the second semester of 2018.

77.5% (n = 241) of nurses perform health education daily; 65% (n = 202) prepare according to the identified needs; the "Identification of children/young and parents' health priorities" was considered to be the most facilitating element (n = 279; 89.7%); the most difficult element was the "Fear of confidentiality breach by the children/young and parents" (74.6%; n = 232); and 65.9% (n = 205) of nurses considered this practice to have equal importance compared to other nursing interventions. It was also found that academic/professional qualifications and the place of professional practice influence the importance that nurses attribute to HE practice.

We can state that there is an appreciation of the binomial child and parents for a better identification of needs, and of the importance attributed to the current legal guidelines (letting themes leading to good health practices be addressed by nurses), which translates into a practice capable of influencing the determinants of health, which promotes health-enhancing behaviors and thus both leads to health gains and reinforces the nurse's position as health-promoting agents.