Introduction
Safeguarding one’s health is one of the most important and lifelong considerations a person can have. To ensure that a person can lead a prosperous and long life, they must engage in practices that are beneficial to their physical and mental wellbeing. To protect public health, medical professionals, especially nurses, lead initiatives of health promotion. In this overview, a health promotion initiative focused on singing will be outlined, as well as argued for.
Purpose Statement
The main purpose of a healthcare intervention is to ensure the well-being of the population and encourage healthier practices among people. While many individuals consider health to be important, only a few can consciously make an effort of engaging in healthier practices or finding proper ways of improving their living. This intervention program will be designed to combine creative approaches with beneficial practices and help people more thoughtfully improve their wellness.
Target Group
The main groups to consider in this intervention are older adults and the elderly, as these two groups are most vulnerable to various diseases, lifelong conditions, and outside influences. To guarantee that the older population has the capacity for comfortable, independent, and healthy living, a health promotion initiative is needed.
Cultural Considerations
The cultural considerations concerning this specific approach to health promotion are few, as the technique chosen can be understood and used universally by any person. The only point of contention that needs to be determined is the language being used in the process, as many members of other cultures may be more familiar with languages other than English. The use of specific health promotional programs that incorporate other common languages will be necessary.
Approach to Health Promotion
The proposed approach to health promotion initiative is to use group singing or choir as a way to unite people, improve community spirit, and contribute to better health outcomes. Singing can be considered a creative activity, one that employs natural human capabilities and utilizes them to produce new meaning. Singing is a means of artistic and personal expression, a tool for a person to voice their personality. The intervention will gather people for coordinated and scheduled singing sessions, and the progress will be overseen by a nurse.
Benefits and Challenges
The main benefits of this approach are outlined in previous research on the topic, including a study on using signing to help the elderly. Group signing is told to improve mood, reduce feelings of uneasiness and discomfort, improved the sleep patterns of the people involved (Batt-Rawden & Stedje, 2020). A challenge then can be seen in convincing people of the effectiveness of the therapy, as well as helping them to open up in a public setting. Many individuals consider public signing to be embarrassing, and overcoming this barrier may be necessary to proceed.
Goals using the SMART format
S – I want the intervention to be able to considerably improve the quality of sleep in the participants, as well as contribute to the reduction in feelings of unease or anxiety in their daily lives
M – The measurement of outcomes will be performed through regular surveying of the participants, as well as the wrap-up session discussing the results by the end of the intervention
A – I possess the skills required to organize people in an environment suitable for signing, helping them learn the lyrics for songs and distributing lyric sheets when needed, as well as coordinating the joined singing effort.
R – The goal of the intervention is aligned with the general aim of proportioning population wellness and ensuring the mental stability of the people in the community.
T – The deadline for the project would be around two months, with regular sessions each week
Overall Goal – Using group singing as an intervention method to promote community wellness and mental wellbeing.
Effectiveness within the Group
I think that this approach can be effective at working with the group of my choosing, as it does not require significant financial or time investments, as well as having a low barrier for entry. Furthermore, singing has been previously identified as a suitable approach to health promotion among older people (Batt-Rawden & Andersen, 2019).
Role of Aesthetic Knowledge within the Health Promotion Intervention
Creative and aesthetic knowledge is invaluable to the process of health promotion, as it can engage the people a nurse is working with on a deeper, emotional level. Artistic solutions make the formulation of unique intervention practices possible and open up possibilities of better working with a large variety of individuals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that the process of health promotion is extremely important to the work of a nurse, or any other healthcare professional. By ensuring that the members of the population continuously improve and protect their health, medical workers can contribute to the wellness of their people. The use of singing as an intervention method can be beneficial to this process as well and has been continuously shown to bring better outcomes in the elderly population. By applying this method to a group of older individuals, better mental health and sleeping are expected
References
Batt-Rawden, K. B., & Stedje, K. (2020). Singing as a health-promoting activity in elderly care: a qualitative, longitudinal study in Norway. Journal of Research in Nursing, 25(5), 404–418. Web.
Batt-Rawden, K., & Andersen, S. (2019). ‘Singing has empowered, enchanted and enthralled me’-choirs for wellbeing? Health Promotion International, 35(1), 140–150. Web.