Perceptions and practice of health education and heath promotion in acute ward settings

This paper reports on an overview of the findings from a two-year Department of Health-funded research project. The study had two overall aims: to describe the extent to which health education and health promotion had become integrated into nurses' practice in acute-care settings and to identify the facilitative and inhibitory factors involved. The study comprised separate sequential stages of data collection and utilised a multi-method approach. Findings from a survey of ward sisters and from ward-based case studies are presented and discussed. These suggest that nurses have yet to fulfill their potential as educators and promoters of health and that a number of influences interact at ward level to encourage or impede the development of this role.