Enhancing/Health Education by Including Choice Education Intervention and the Theory of Choice into the Teaching Plan

• Published in: Race, gender & class (Towson, Md.) gender & class (Towson, Md.), 2010-01, Vol.17 (3/4), p.298-306
• Main Author: Fomby-White, Betty
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior; Behavior modification; Choices; Collaborative learning; Diet; Education; Educational programs; Employment; Free will; Health Behavior; Health Education; Health insurance; Health outcomes; Health problems; Health services; Home health care; Housing; Illnesses; Intervention; Learning theory; Lifestyles; Living conditions; Medical conditions; Medical Decision Making; Medicine; Nurses; Nursing education; Psychoeducational intervention; Religiosity; Residential Preferences; School surveys; Social classes; Social learning theory; Teachers; Teaching; Theory; Transportation; Work environment
• ISSN: 1082-8354

An important role for all health educators is to positively influencing the health behavior of individuals and communities as well as the living conditions that influence their health. Yet many health educators have found that despite their many efforts to educate individuals and communities to change unhealthy behaviors individuals after leaving a health education program go home and make choices to either do what has been taught or to continue to do what is expedient for the individual at the time.. Often what is expedient for the individual is not a healthy choice. Based on this reality it is necessary for health educators to include in their health education teaching plans an intervention that will teach learners how to better understand the choice process and how to correctly use the information given to make healthy choices at home. This intervention named "Choice Education Intervention" is guided by a new nursing theory entitled "The Theory of Choice". The new theory proposes the following assumptions. Many factors determine health which, include choice, gender, race, social class, work environment, employment status, income, housing conditions, spirituality, stability of the environment, transportation, diet, lifestyle and education. Further, in the Theory of Choice it is proposed that individuals use choice to exert a relatively high degree of control over their health by their adherence to medical advise, personal health choices made, and their health care utilization. Also to increase the effectiveness of health education provided learners need to be guided to make healthy choices after receiving the specific health information. It is therefore important for health educators to learn how to guide learners in making positive health choices.