Teaching health education

Abstract

For the past three years the subject Theory and Practice of Health Education has been offered to prospective community health nurses by the Department of Nursing Science at the Medical University of Southern Africa (Medunsa). The purpose of introducing this course was to promote the practice of health education - an integral part of health care and thus of community nursing care - by guiding community health nurses to:
— synthesise appropriate and applicable theoretical concepts from various fields of science including education, anthropology, psychology, sociology and nursing as a premise on which to base health education
— apply theoretical concepts gleaned from various fields of science to the field of health education
— develop reasonable skill in selecting, planning, preparing, utilising and evaluating teaching/learning aids
— evolve a favourable attitude towards health education
— undertake simple studies related to health behaviour
— identify authorities concerned with health education on local, national and international level and know their contributions.