Preparing students for health promotion: the challenge for Australian nursing in the 90s

Health promotion is increasingly recognized as a role to be taken up by all health workers, and nurses, in particular, have been recognized for their potential contribution in this area. Nurse educators around Australia are currently grappling with how best to reorient nurses towards health promotion, and how to prepare nursing students for a health promotion role. In this discussion paper, one university's preparation of their undergraduate students will be examined, as a means of stimulating further debate about how health promotion can be effectively incorporated into undergraduate nursing education. The Health Education and Promotion unit at University of New England, Armidale is offered in the third year of the Bachelor of Nursing. It incorporates traditional teaching strategies and a specific health promotion practicum. The practicum is vital in developing students' health promotion skills and helping them to integrate their theoretical learning into practice. It is argued that education in health promotion is vital if nurses are to prepare themselves for the challenge of promoting the health of their communities.