Relevance to Nursing: Health Belief Model

Whether nurses are aware of it or not, this model is the motivational approach most frequently
applied in health care settings. While not a formal part of this model, the concepts of primary,
secondary, and tertiary prevention have been used to describe health protection activities.
According to De Chesnay and Anderson (2012), the Health Belief Model has been extensively
useful as a framework for the identification of individuals who engage in behaviors relevant to
primary and secondary prevention. Primary prevention is the specific protection against a
disease to prevent its occurrence. Examples of nurses promoting primary prevention include
mass immunizations to prevent disease, reductions in risk factors, and providing education to
increase patient knowledge of air, water, and noise pollution so as to prevent chronic diseases.
Secondary prevention is defined as organized, direct screening efforts or education of the
public to promote early case findings of individuals with disease so that treatments can be
implemented to halt pathologic process and limit disability. Examples of secondary education
delivery by nursing would be the use of home kits for detection of occult blood in the stool and
public education to promote health behaviors such as mammography and breast self-
examination. Tertiary prevention is aimed at minimizing residual disability from disease and
promoting a productive life, within the limitation of the residual effects. Examples of nursing
practice for tertiary prevention would be cardiac rehabilitation and stroke rehabilitation
(De Chesnay and Anderson, 2012).

All levels of nursing engage in health education prevalent to these concepts thus the goal of
nursing staff should be to work with the patient in a supportive manner to increase his or he
level of confidence for goal of education to prevent disease. Education should be provided to
ensure the patient understands the seriousness of disease states and its relation to his or her
comorbidities.

The implications of using this model in an advanced practice setting is the ability to differentiate
between concepts of belief and meaning to help clinical nurses produce questions which can
lead to more concentrated interventions. As beliefs are ingrained in the cognitive sphere of
the patient and often stimulated by personal familiarities or culture, a nurse can support
patients to explore beliefs by welcoming them to relate personal accounts about their families,
culture and their perception of illnesses (Richer, M. & Ezer, H. 2000).