Nola Pender’s desire to become a registered nurse began as a little girl when her aunt was hospitalized. “The experience of watching the nurses caring for my aunt in her illness created in me a fascination with the work of nursing” (Alligood & Tomey, 2010). Her experience developed into the Health Promotion Model (HPM) which is to be used as a guide to explore the biophysical processes that motivate people to engage in behaviors directed toward improving their overall health & well-being.
Although this theory can be applied to all areas of nursing, using it in clinical practice to educate adolescents seems to me to be ideal.Adolescence is a unique time in ones life because although they are still “children”, they are also subjected to enormous outside influence which can be both positive and/or negative. “The United States has one of the highest unintended pregnancy rates of all industrialized nations in the world, with 13% of those occurring among the adolescent population. Helping make contraception accessible to adolescents is one area where school nurses are able to have an impact” (Gabzdyl, 2010).
School nurses have an invaluable advantage since they have the opportunity to be in contact with this age group frequently.A 14 year old female is sent to the school nurse because the teacher notices that something seems to be distracting her student. She tells the nurse that she engaged in consensual sexual activity for the first time the night before. When asked if she ever had sex education she stated she’s only received information from her friends.
“Due to the teenage pregnancy rates and the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that exist in today's society, it is very important for teenagers to be informed of the facts related to pregnancy and STDs and how to prevent them from occurring.With this knowledge, they are able to make informed decisions related to their sexual experiences” (Graham, 1999). As an advanced practice nurse I would incorporate Pender’s HPM every time I educated patients and/or caregivers. A weakness of this model is it does not take into account the patients financial status and their willingness to participate in health promoting behaviors.
This model views the patient in a holistic manner which is the philosophy of many nurses.
