Theories And Models Of Health Education

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Theories and Models of Health Education Sarah Dean HCA 331: Introduction to Health Care Education Instructor Nina Bell March 19, 2012 Health Belief Model Among the social cognition models, health belief model is the most widely known. This psychological and health behavior change model results from 1966 work of Irwin Rosenstock who developed it to help in study and promotion of health services uptake . At first, this model was used chiefly in prediction of behavioral responses to treatment given to chronically or acutely ill patients (Glanz, 2002). Currently, it is used in predicting other general health behaviors. This model deals with issues pertaining to why people may or may not seek treatment or preventive measures looking at issues like perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived barriers and perceived benefits. Overtime it has been modified to include elements such as social-psychological variables, demographic variables, cues to action and health motivation (Glanz, 2002). This model is important in healthcare education due to the fact that it engages use of common sense and easy constructs which healthcare practitioners who don’t have expertise in psychology can easily apply. Further, it can help a healthcare practitioner to evaluate a patient fully so as to know what barriers may stand between his/her client and good health. Self-efficacy is a term which roughly corresponds to an individual’s belief in their own capabilities and which is widely used in psychology (Bandura, 1976). According to the renowned psychologist Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is a person’s inherent belief in his/her competence in various situations and circumstances. Bandura came up with this theory in 1962 and continued expanding on it over the next several years. It lies at the center of Bandura’s highly acclaimed social cognitive theory whose
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