The population of the United States is aging. As age increases, the potential for experiencing an acute or chronic disease also increases. The publication Healthy People 2000 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1990) has called for a renewed commitment to increasing the number of healthy years in the average life span. To accomplish this goal, health care professionals must work to develop and present health promotion programs in which the participants acquire information that is meaningful to them. Although attendance of older adults at health promotion programs does not necessarily produce lifestyle change, providing access to information relevant to their perceived health problem is an important step towards creating behavioral change. Health programs directed towards older adult participants must contain three components to be effective: (a) active involvement of participants, (b) peer interaction, and (c) participant selected objectives (Haber, 1994).

Nurses are in an ideal position to be advocates for and providers of health promotion programs. Nurses have access to older adults in primary, secondary and tertiary health care settings. O’Neil (1993) predicts that in the future, health care providers will be more oriented toward health than illness and that health promotion efforts will be population-based and addressed at the community level rather than at the individual patient level. Baccalaureate and graduate nursing educational programs must include the development, implementation, and evaluation of community health promotion as clinical experiences. This project was designed to act as a model for involving baccalaureate and graduate nursing students in the development, implementation, and evaluation of health promotion programs for an older adult population

Comments, suggestions, or requests to ud-geriteach@udel.edu. "http://www.udel.edu/geriteach/project/watson-contents.html" Last updated July 12, 1998. Copyright Norine Watson, 1998.