Working in critical care, we often see people at their worst, and their most unwell. We see healthy people have catastrophic illnesses or injuries that are non-recoverable, but we also see people with illnesses that could be recoverable, but their bodies struggle due to other comorbidities they are facing. Newfoundland and Labrador has some of the unhealthiest people in Canada, with some of the highest rates of chronic disease including multimorbidity, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as some of the highest rates of heart disease in Canada (Department of Health and Community Services, 2020). This is what really made me interested in learning more about health promotion, and understanding why we lack good health promotion not just in NL, but in Canada.
I think that a huge proponent of health promotion that is lacking, particularly here in NL, is education and health literacy. I think as a health professional, understanding health promotion and education is huge, especially as a leader, as that is something that I could share with staff who work in my areas. My main learning goal for this course would be to understand the gaps in health literacy and why Canada hasn’t done better, as well as to further understand the gaps with the social determinants of health and the sustainable development goals.
Chronic disease. Department of Health and Community Services. (2020, July 21). https://www.gov.nl.ca/hcs/chronicdisease/cdcontrol/
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