Health promotion: the role of the children's nurse

The contribution of health promotion to community children's nursing

This article discusses the range of current thinking on health promotion with special reference to community children's nursing. The scene is set with the identification of a number of issues currently at the heart of the promotion of health in children and young people. Emphasis is placed on the unprecedented expansion of interest in the promotion of children's health in Northern Ireland. Current meanings attributed to health promotion are discussed and applied to the practice of community children's nursing. Some of the contentious elements of these definitions and meanings are debated. For example, the distinct meanings of health and well-being in children are discussed and the issue of whether health promotion should be aimed at individual children, their families, or their communities is pondered. Prevention, it is argued, is one particularly important component of the promotion of health in children in the community in Northern Ireland.