The ecological perspective is a useful framework for understanding the range of factors that influence health and well-being. It is a model that can assist in providing a complete perspective of the factors that affect specific health behaviors, including the social determinants of health. Refer to ecological model readings listed in the unit readings, which will help you with this discussion. Complete the following:
· Discuss how the ecological model is applicable to your select public health problem.
· Give examples of other applications of the ecological model in public health.
Ecological Perspective on Health and Wellness
The Healthy People 2020 framework addresses the importance of ecological models in health promotion and disease prevention. Programs are most likely to be effective when they are designed to address the multiple levels of influence on health behaviors. Ecological models of health behavior emphasize the environmental and policy contexts of behavior, while incorporating social and psychological influences. Ecological models lead to the explicit consideration of multiple levels of influence, thereby guiding the development of more comprehensive interventions. The combination of environmental, policy, social, and individual intervention strategies is credited with the major reductions in tobacco use in the United States since the 1960s (Institute of Medicine, 2001).
g the curtain the nurse is further exemplifying her interest in the patient and her unprofessionalism in the workplace. Under those circumstances the portrayal of nurses is nothing more than a sexual object with erotic desire regardless of the relationship in the workplace and the unprofessionalism it displays.
Reading into the clothing an actor or actresses wears can also give insight into hidden and subliminal messages or ideas. As well as showing a lack of professionalism and decorum this visual text also advertises the female body in small, subtle ways. Our nurse is seen to be wearing her white dress uniform, unzipped and showing some cleavage. A detail as minuscule as an unzipped uniform plays a larger role in the bigger picture. The unzipped uniform indicates that the nurse is open to attention from her patients further diminishing her true role. In like manner this ad reinforces the stereotype that nurses are frivolous, sexually available females by the shortness of the nurse’s uniform dress. For decades the notion that nursing wasn’t serious played a role in the practicing of the field and the potential nurses. The length of her dress can be deemed unprofessional and depicting her in this manner is undermining. Correspondingly, the visual text goes on to give the idea that no matter the age or experience in the field providing workplace sexual services is not something nurses ever get past. Both nurses are rendered interested in their patients, despite the difference in age the younger and older nurse are submissive to workplace sexual services. This inadvertently sends a message to viewers that despite your age or years spent in the nursing field you will still find yourself susceptible to sexual advances in the workplace. In short, small details such as what an actor or actress is wearing can still send a message, the Dentyne Ice commercial continuously degrades nurses with every aspect of their commercial.
Equally important as the body language and uniforms worn by the nurses is the fact that they are both women is unconsciously sending a message. The visual text displays two female nurses coming to the aid of their male patients, enhancing the idea that the nursing field is designed for women. To this day nursing is still seen as a less prestigious profession, requiring less education and training. This medieval way of thinking is still relevant as the number of men in the nursing field is still low, this ad by Dentyne plays on the fact that mostly women are nurses by casting two female roles. The concept that women are dominant in the nursing field has slowly been diminishing, but with ads just as this plaguing the career it can send a message that disinterests its viewers. A trivial detail such as this can send yet another hidden idea in this commercial. Sexism in the nursing career should not be an ongoing subject, the lack of respect shown to nurses in this ad is continuously sending subliminal concepts. Both nurses are depicted as readily being available to their male patient’s advances, if two male nurses were cast the scenario would be quite different. The stereotype that nurses are less qualified and less important of a profession goes hand in hand with the message Dentyne Ice is sending by showcasing such poor work ethics. All in all, the commercial attacks nurses and their professionalism. In brief, many factors have playe