What is a Health Educator?
A
Health Educator... is professionally prepared and possesses knowledge and
skills based upon theories and research to promote health education behavior
change in individuals and populations. Health Education draws from various
sciences to promote health and prevent disease, disability, and premature
death.
Health educators provide information on health and health related issues.
They can assess health training needs and plan health education programs.
They may
specialize according to specific health concerns, illnesses, or work or
training setting.
Health
educators may work as independent consultants or in health departments,
community organizations, businesses, hospitals, schools, or government
agencies.
Health
Educators often:
· Perform
health training needs assessments.
· Design
and develop health education programs.
· Publish
health education materials, information papers, and grant proposals.
· Develop
health education curricula.
· Teach
health in public and private schools.
Skill Sets of Health Educators to Meet Public Health Needs
Health
educators are uniquely positioned to address public health needs by deploying
their training and competencies in the application of behavioral theories
across a wide range of interventions designed to improve population health.
Health
educators use a holistic approach to changing health behaviors, implementing
evidence-based interventions and adapting to changing population needs.
For
example, health educators can help multicultural populations with access to and
use of the health system by improving their health insurance literacy and
understanding of enrollment options and can conduct community health needs
assessments required for nonprofit hospitals, modify policies or systems to
improve access to preventive health services, and strengthen clinical and
community linkages.
In
addition, health educators can develop and implement training programs for
professionals and consumers, market health programs and services, conduct
evaluation research, analyze data and educate populations about wellness
behaviors (e.g, vaccination campaigns, opioid abuse prevention programs),
provide consultation to health agencies about different topics (eg, smoking
prevention and cessation efforts), and apply their skills in cross-cultural
communication and community organizing (eg, prenatal programs for expectant
mothers in diverse communities) .
A
health educator has training in public health, health promotion, or community
health at the bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral levels.
To
maintain the highest level of competence in the health education workforce,
health educators can obtain additional certifications such as the Certified
Health Education Specialist (CHES) and Master Certified Health Education
Specialist (MCHES), both awarded through the National Commission for Health
Education Credentialing to people who have met academic preparation and
examination qualifications, which requires that the person remains up to date
with education requisites, acquiring at least 75 continuing education contact
hours every 5 years.
Top 21 Functions of Health Educations (What Trained Health Educators Do)
Health
educators teach people about behaviors that promote wellness. They are change
agents (positive behavior change)
They
also:
1. Teach
health education in schools
2. Assess
individual and community needs
3. Plan
health education programs
4. Develop
health education programs
5. Coordinate
health education programs
6. Implement
health education programs
7. Manage
health education programs and personnel
8. Evaluate
health education programs
9. Write
grants
10. Build coalitions
11. Identify resources
12. Make referrals
13. Develop social marketing and mass media
campaigns
14. Organize/mobilize communities for action
15. Handle controversial health issues/content
16. Advocate for health-related issues
17. Encourage healthy behavior
18. Use a variety of education/training methods
19. Develop audio, visual, print and electronic
materials
20. Conduct research
21. Write scholarly articles.
Job Opportunities and Career Prospects for Health Education Graduates in Nigeria
1. Specialist Careers in
Health Education:
(a) Certified Education
Specialist: The certified health educational master, or CHES,
works to assist patients in progressing their everyday health and quality of
life through healthcare-related instructive programs. Whereas their work is
just as centered on the entire community as that of other masters.
The
healthcare education professionals have more centers intelligent with
individual people in traditional clinical situations, in this way, making the
world a better place, one individual per time.
(b) Healthcare Information
Analyst: The information analyst works with healthcare providers
to raise broadly-focused educational campaigns. Their work is vital to
distinguishing existing, far-reaching issues in clinical healthcare settings,
as well as in pinpointing current deficiencies in existing open mindfulness
activities. Whereas they may take part effectively in specific outreach
programs, their part is fundamentally within the gathering and examination of
essential data.
For
that reason, they may plan overviews, surveys, and interviews, as well as
program planning, to assemble vital information over time.
(c) Community Promotion Specialist: This specialization, inside the entire field of healthcare and open mindfulness, centers basically on general community mindfulness. Their community may be an expansive association, a government body, a metropolitan range, or a few other comprehensive statistics; ordinarily, it incorporates thousands of different people unless their center is on a specific racial, ethnic, or other narrowly defined statistics.
The
objective of the CHPS position is to collate and examine healthcare-related
data, report on their findings, and plan campaigns to assist the foremost
fundamental data reach the whole community.
(d) Product Development Specialist: The corporate world offers expanding opportunities for healthcare educational and promotional experts. One of the foremost sweeping career opportunities accessible to the public with this capability is that of the item improvement master. They incorporate a vast extend of obligations, but what it sums to in a nutshell could be a two-pronged approach to open wellness: the specialist helps within the design process, decreasing potential health dangers, and is additionally capable for creating materials relating to the right utilize of an item or service.
(e) Healthcare Promotional
Specialists (HPS): A promotional specialist is something of a
general practitioner within this profession's range of careers, and who they
interact with in terms of how they associate as well as who they connect with.
A few may work with huge associations or other communities, whereas others
might take a patient-by-patient approach. They tend to center on specific areas
of concern. There are HPS professionals who concentrate on a wide range of
growing concerns today, from the spread of sexually transmitted diseases to
contagious viral organisms, to dental problems in children within a particular
county or state.
2. Other Careers include;
(a)
Health educator in schools (primary, secondary and universities)
(b)
Community development worker
(c)
Further education teacher
(d)
Health service manager
(e)
Health Counselor
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