Health Promotion Practices in Nursing for Elderly Persons in Municipal Home Care: An Integrative Literature Review

Abstract

Elderly patients sometimes seek emergency services unnecessarily. Emergency clinics can be detrimental to the elderly. The purpose of this study was to find health promotion practices that enable a registered nurse in community health to reduce the need for home care clients to seek emergency care. The method of integrative literature review was used. Through health promotion work in the home, the registered nurses in community health (in conjunction with other professionals) can strengthen patients’ self-esteem and reduce their emergency care visits. Patient involvement is part of this work, and the registered nurses in community health needs to get to know patients to learn their health needs, design individual care plans, and find out whether they need education about their own health and/or health care services available to them. Registered nurses in community health experience difficulties in performing health promotion because they perceive that other tasks have higher priority.