HEALTH PROMOTION TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS - AN INTEGRAL ROLE FOR CLINICAL NURSES IN LANARKSHIRE, SCOTLAND

Training needs analysis is considered essential to professional and or ganizational development, for continuing education and for incorporati on into professional practice, Increasingly, nurses are encouraged to develop their health promotion role. Despite this there has been relat ively little research in Scotland into the health promotion role of th e hospital nurse, This study describes the results of a health promoti on training needs analysis undertaken on qualified, hospital-based nur ses in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Information on the nurses' current healt h promotion practices, their attitudes and beliefs, their views on rol e development and priorities for further training were collated, analy sed and discussed within the framework of the Health Action Model. Thi s model was originally designed to assist understanding of the gap tha t exists between an individual intention to act and the eventual healt h action, However, in this study the ways in which 'cognitive factors' (knowledge and beliefs) and 'motivational factors' (considering value s, attitudes and drives) and pressures from social norms and significa nt others assisted in the understanding of the nurse's orientation to, and beliefs about, health promotion practice, Fifty-seven per cent of nurses in the study considered health promotion activities to be emer ging in clinical care and 4% considered them to be advanced. The inter est respondents have in role development and the further integration o f health promotion activities into nursing practice was explored by as certaining the nurses' attitudes and beliefs about their own health pr omotion role. Of 107 respondents, a majority 72 (67%) agreed health pr omotion interventions to be an important function of the nurse with 29 (27%) strongly agreeing (n = 107). Sixty per cent stated they would b e interested in developing their role and 30% were very strongly inter ested. Recommendations are therefore made for future planning and deve lopment strategies for the health promotion role of hospital nurses.