PREPARING STUDENTS FOR HEALTH PROMOTION - THE CHALLENGE FOR AUSTRALIAN NURSING IN THE 90S

Health promotion is increasingly recognized as a role to be taken up b y all health workers, and nurses, in particular, have been recognized for their potential contribution in this area, Nurse educators around Australia are currently grappling with how best to reorient nurses tow ards health promotion, and how to prepare nursing students for a healt h promotion role, In this discussion paper, one university's preparati on of their undergraduate students will be examined, as a means of sti mulating further debate about how health promotion can be effectively incorporated into undergraduate nursing education, The Health Educatio n and Promotion unit at University of New England, Armidale is offered in the third year of the Bachelor of Nursing, It incorporates traditi onal teaching strategies and a specific health promotion practicum, Th e practicum is vital in developing students' health promotion skills a nd helping them to integrate their theoretical learning into practice, It is argued that education in health promotion is vital if nurses ar e to prepare themselves for the challenge of promoting the health of t heir communities.