Health promotion. Evolution of a concept

An examination of the concept of health promotion provides insight into the origins and developmental milestones that have brought us to our current level of application in health care. It is our view that health promotion can occur at any point on the continuum of health and illness. Perhaps it is a semantic struggle that keeps us from movement toward providing the highest quality of health care of which we are capable. The previous examination leads us to contend that there is indeed significant overlap in the intent of the concepts of health promotion and prevention. Further examination of the concept is redundant if our goal is to continue to improve the quality of care. After all, as Nightingale pointed out, our purpose is to do all we can to assist the body in taking care of itself.