Education has come out as a social determinant of health. The aspect goes to the point of measuring health by assessing the “students who graduate with regular diploma 4 years after starting 9th grade.” According to data, we are improving on this aspect as a country. The percentage of students graduating in this respect has increased by 8% when comparing the 2010-2011 and 2016-2017 school years. In the 2010-2011 school year, the proportion was 79%, while in the 2016-2017 year, the proportion went up to 85% ( Healthy People 2020). This is a positive aspect since it shows a move towards 87%, which is the HP2020 target. This is important to the country’s health since it has an impact on varied aspects of life and health outcomes. Education is an aspect that is associated with improved health and quality of life, longer life expectancy, health-promoting behaviors like not smoking, regular physical activities, and getting routine checkups, among other things.

Among the relevant health promotion strategies and intervention is enabling. This is an aspect that focuses on attaining equity in health. This includes a favorable foundation to secure desired life skills, access to information, and opportunities for making healthy choices (Evans et al., 2017). This is something that is enabled by ensuring students get the desired education level. The role of a professional nurse in developing and delivering health strategies and promotion involves enabling individuals, families, and communities to increase control over their lives. This is attained by providing patients with the relevant information that is needed to manage the inherent health conditions hence improving the overall health (Evans et al., 2017). The process of educating patients might be hindered or boosted by the level of education that a relevant patient has attained.

References

Evans, D., Coutsaftiki, D., & Fathers, P. (2017). Health Promotion and Public Health for Nursing Students (3rd ed.). Learning Matters.

Healthy People 2020. (2019). Retrieved 10 December 2019, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/leading-health-indicators/2020-lhi-topics/Social-Determinants/data

Potter, P.A., Perry, A.G., Stockert, P., & Hall, A. (2017). Fundamentals of nursing. (9thed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.