Health Promotion and Maintenance
Prevention across the lifespan
Health promotion asks what keeps clients well and what detects disease early. Distinguish primary prevention, which prevents disease before it starts, from secondary prevention, which finds disease early, and tertiary prevention, which limits disability and supports rehabilitation. Immunizations, safe sleep teaching, seat belt use, and nutrition counseling are primary. Screening tests such as blood pressure checks or cancer screening are secondary when the client has no symptoms. Cardiac rehabilitation and diabetes self-management support are tertiary. Questions often test the level of prevention, the appropriate age or risk group, and whether the nurse should teach, screen, refer, or report.
Know developmental tasks and age-specific risks. Infants and toddlers need injury prevention, car seat guidance, and lead or developmental screening per schedule. Adolescents need confidential risk assessment, mental health and substance use screening, and safety counseling. Older adults need fall prevention, medication review, advance care planning, and screening for cognitive or sensory change. Use teach-back to confirm understanding, involve the client in goal setting, and adapt materials for health literacy and culture. Do not promise that screening is diagnostic or that a behavior change will cure disease.
Trap and worked example
A common trap is labeling a screening test as primary prevention or assuming a client understands simply because teaching was provided. Another is giving a generic instruction without checking readiness. Worked example: a client with no symptoms asks why to check blood pressure at a health fair. The nurse explains that this is secondary prevention: it looks for a problem early so treatment can begin. Rule of thumb: prevent, detect, then rehabilitate.