Health Belief Theory

The main aim of patient teaching is to change the patient's behavior. However, changing a patient behavior is somewhat challenging especially among the geriatric generation. This is attributable to the fact that healthcare providers normally demands enormous modification of the patient's way of living and within the shortest period of time. For instance, the patient can be asked to change their weight by strictly remaining on a diet for almost a year or sometimes for their entire life (Carolyn, 2011). This includes controlling their intake of the foods rich in cholesterol and fat. In some cases, the patient may be required to monitor their blood pressure regularly, exercise and adhere to their medication as required. Undoubtedly, self management …show more content…
A theory is a generalized set of rules which facilitates in finding the appropriate interventions for patient motivation, learning and in the prediction for CHF patient education among the geriatric population. This is because it facilitates the establishment of an effective and strong patient education intervention. The theory used in this capstone project is the Health Belief Model (Bylund et al. 2011). The Health Belief Model is rationale for selecting this theory is that it aids in developing an explanation on why geriatric population diagnosed with CHF may accept or reject the proposed healthy behaviors. This theory helps the healthcare providers to understand the patient's motivations and the factors that influence their decision making processes. The model proposes that patient tends to respond better to messages on preventive care if the patient believes that they are at a significant risk of their condition to worsen, and if they are convinced beyond doubt that if the patient adopt the recommended behavioral change, their health condition will improve (Carolyn, …show more content…
This is important because if a patient fails to see their condition as threatening, their stimulus to action is often reduced significantly. For instance, a 60 year old woman is likely to stop taking medication as prescribed if she is not aware or does not believe that she is at high risk of developing CHF exacerbation. In this context, two types of threats are perceived. This includes the threat of perceived susceptibility and that of perceived severity (Carolyn, 2011). In susceptibility, the threat is perceived according to concerns of patient level of risk is she does not change a specific behavior. The second risk is the threat of severity which is mainly associated to the consequences of the patient's actions. In this context, the theory will be incorporated to establish an effective patient education; one that has considerable effects on patient's health and puts emphasis in both of these threats susceptibility and severity. This helps the healthcare provider to give these individuals expectations that the recommended new behavior can be beneficial, and that the benefits outweigh the barriers; and most importantly, they must design the patient education program in a manner that makes the healthcare providers feel that the suggested recommendations can be accomplished (Bylund et al.

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